


The Last Ammunition

by Ayzis



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Apocalypse, Drama, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Schizophrenia, Zombie Apocalypse, and for the sake of not having to write ocs, there is a bit of shinee for the sake of plot
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-25
Updated: 2016-11-15
Packaged: 2018-08-11 01:00:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 41,285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7869106
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ayzis/pseuds/Ayzis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"It's a new world where blood boils with tension, where friends and lovers turn against one another in a desperate attempt to hold onto the thin thread of survival."</p>
<p>Another Zombie Apocalypse AU, what is there to be said. Except, it's interesting, you'll have to trust me, and it's spicy (sexual spicy that doesn't take things too far because nobody wants smut with plot). It's not exactly built upon any pairing and gives equal attention to all of them, I do have XiuHan and ByunXing as side-pairings in this case. All I can suggest you is a thrilling story, diverse characters and a thought-out plot.<br/>If you're into long stories that build in length of time, this might be the one for you.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Heroes falling

A rusty barrel strapped to his thigh felt lighter than usual, that's how he knew he had just stepped into a new life.

He wearily plopped down the floor next to a tall, tanned man and let out a heavy breath as the crown of his head touched the peeling wall.

"I got used to it now." He said matter-of-factly, cracking his eyes open just until he could see the barrel resting on the side of his leg.

"Isn't that a good news?" The tanned man enthused, his eyes wandering to the side.

"I've never wanted something that takes lives to grow on me, Minho." The man sighed, his thick eyebrows knitting on the bridge of his nose.

"A wise man once told me, purpose of a weapon is solely determined by the one wielding it." Minho chanted with the faintest grin on his face. He draped his long sleeve over the pale man's shoulder and took the barrel out of the holster hugging his thigh.

He stuck his finger in the trigger guard and twirled the gun around it.

"It's up to you whether it takes a life or protects it." He finished the quote, holding the gun up in front of his friend's face.

"A wise man?" The other male scoffed, bowing his head in defeat. He turned it sideways, breathing into Minho's shoulder.

"He went by the name Suho." Minho put his forehead on the smaller man's, suggestively laying a free hand on his knee.

Suho's chest rose and fell with ease. He carefully moved the gun out of his sight, guiding Minho's hand to lay it on the floor, where he hoped it would continue to collect dust, but drastic times called for drastic measures.

"I'm not cut out to fight for my life." Suho muttered under his breath, raising his chin ever so slightly, yet noticeably enough for his partner to accept the invitation.

Minho gently pecked his lips, patiently waiting for another sign of approval.

Suho spread his fingers over the width of Minho's hand resting on his knee and slowly guided it up his thigh.

A corner of Minho's mouth curved upwards as he gently trapped Suho's bottom lip between his teeth, tasting the dried blood off of them.

When his hand was swiftly guided over the smaller man's hipbone, he snuggled even closer, boldly deepening the kiss, but was taken aback by a sudden retreat of Suho's.

"Did you hear that?" Suho whispered, his trembling hand reaching for the gun he had disposed of.

Minho hopped off the ground, mustering a shooting position in a split second as the muzzle of his rifle went through a small gap in the barricaded window.

"They're coming.."

"Kris!" Suho tore his eyes away from the window and stormed out of the trashed room, running into an office where his comrades were engaged in attempts to fix the radio transmitter.

Minho felt a prick in his chest upon hearing the name Kris. He couldn't bring himself to like the guy ever since he got to know him 4 months ago. It was Suho's faith in Kris, his childhood friend, that kept Minho's guard down.

"Seven infected wandering on the Southeast, they're extremely close now." Suho informed, running up to the cabinets.

He pushed a couple of boxes out and grabbed a hand grenade.

"We can draw them all to the backside of the block and take out at the same time without wasting any bullets."

"And who are you planning to use as a bait?" Kris cocked a brow, notifying that he wasn't up for the risk. He glanced down at the younger boy who was toying a screwdriver beside him.

"Sehun won't do." Suho shook his head, rolling up his dirtied sleeves. "But Vivi will."

Sehun's head whipped upwards with a mien that had both apology and confusion written over it. He stood up and without wiping his trousers, rushed to snatch a white poodle into his arms.

"Vivi won't be able to do that."

"Yeah," Kris confirmed with a steady nod. "That's the dumbest dog in the world."

Sehun shot the tall blond a cross glare, protectively hugging his dog to his chest. He then looked Suho dead in the eye and asked:

"Are you trying to blow him up with the zombies?"

The pale man shuddered, furrowing his eyebrows. Although he was young, all the stress and pressure had already left a visible trail on his spotless forehead. Just a few, faint wrinkles that deepened every time he showed emotions... And he was really bad at hiding emotions.

"Sehunnie, that's not what I meant.."

"Think about it, he won't serve us a better purpose. He only uses up resources we're quite short on already." Kris said bluntly, not bothering to even look at the hurt expression on Sehun's face.

The youngster let silence hang in the air as his head bowed, making a shadow fall upon his face in a ghostly pattern.

"So do you serve no purpose but take up too much space and eat a portion meant for three, why don't we feed you to the zombies instead?" He blurted out, gritting his teeth until they screeched.

"Huh?" Kris straightened his back, hovering in his full height over the not-much-shorter maknae. "And how about I feed you some bullets?"

"Both of you, dismiss this. We've got seven infected to take care of and we don't have a plan." Suho announced, letting his shoulders fall loose in surrender.

"Seven bullets are worth our lives." Kris blurted nonchalantly, reaching his rifle when suddenly Minho grabbed it by the barrel.

Having received a threatening look from the tall blond, Minho only shook his head and pointed the tip of the gun at the ground.

"To only waste seven bullets, you need a good aim."

Kris clicked his tongue and dumped his whole weight onto a ragged couch, folding his arms over his chest.

"Sehun, please go back to fixing the transmitter. It's about time to trade resources with Luhan's team. While we're here holding onto last ammunition, they're probably starving. We need to get through to them." Suho knew exactly which buttons to push. In Sehun's case it was a mere mention of Luhan's name.

The two were best friends separated during the rushed evacuation which resulted in nothing but deaths of hundreds of people and torn apart families. Some were forced into a bomb shelter in the western side of the island, others were taken to the shore on the eastern part, where there were, supposedly, evacuation boats awaiting them, but both groups faced a swarm of infected. The only few survivors found shelter in supermarkets, hospitals and other facilities around the island.

Sehun was the reason Suho questioned his own beliefs: a kid who was a gifted engineer and programmer, truly an angel-sent one, but at the same time he was suffering a mild schizophrenia, which often caused hallucinations and brought their team a lot of trouble.

By the time the sun was starting to hide behind the horizon, Sehun had fixed the radio and was now trying to catch the right wavelength. His heart pounded with each rustle that came out of the device, for he was in constant fear of being too late.

In the new world, every time could be the last.

"Mayday, mayday.." Like a broken record, he didn't give up until he heard a promising beeping sound.

"Luhan on the line, can you hear me?" The voice rang in Sehun's ears like a splendid symphony and he could finally sigh in relief.

"I can hear you, little Lu." He grinned, feeling his body release the tension through every other breath.

"Sehunnie? I honestly can't wait to kick your butt. Speaking of which, where the hell have you guys been?"

"Our transmitter avada kedavra'd. Are you guys eating cock there?"

"What?!"

"I asked if you're eating cockroaches there."

"I owe you fifty seven punches until now." Luhan laughed. He had long gotten used to Sehun's unfortunate jokes, not like he particularly disliked having a weak laugh once in a while.

"Are we through?" Suho hurriedly walked up to the boy and sat down next to him, patting him on the back.

"Luhan, it's Suho. We've been having technical difficulties for two weeks now. Finding pieces and tools cost us most of our bullets, we're running low now." The man spoke slowly and loudly, making sure his voice was readable through the radio waves.

"We're tired of eating canned air too." Luhan joked in a sorrowful tone. "Chanyeol got food poisoning recently, we're really desperate right now."

"We have seven infected right outside the window, Luhan, and it's quite dangerous to do the exchange at this time."

"I understand, but at this rate Chanyeol's not going to last long and neither are we. How about we move over to your camp?"

Sehun's eyes lit up upon hearing that. He quickly gave Suho a wide smile, violently nodding his head.

"It's about time." Suho gave an unsure smile to the maknae looking up at him. There was still a plan to come up with.

The way the two camps exchanged goods was fairly simple:

Suho's team, which had settled in a large supermarket, provided food and medicine, Luhan's team, settled in a block somewhere not too far from a weapon shop provided ammunition and weaponry.

There were about nine kilometers between their camps, walking there was a suicidal nonsense, so they relied on a truck alone, which was originally the supermarket's property. It was a tiny vehicle meant to do deliveries, but it was better than nothing.

Suho's team would drive to the meeting place near the block, unload, get their weaponry and drive back.

One of the teammates, either Luhan, Minseok or Chanyeol would get the exchange goods and carry them into the block whilst the other two were on guard.

It had been three weeks since they settled in their current camps and had only done exchanges twice before. They couldn't possibly transfer four people and the goods they needed to survive via the small truck all at once, they avoided wasting gas too, that's why nobody had been rushing the idea of joining the two camps together.

"I've decided." Suho exhaled heavily, swaying his chair back and forth. "If more than one person drives there, we're not going to be able to fit all three of them in the truck. We're going to send the driver alone with medical supplies to help Chanyeol immediately and with all the ammunition we have left to protect himself. His self-defense job will be done once he picks Luhan's team up anyway."

"What about the seven zombies knocking on our door? We still have to get through them." Minho spoke, giving Suho a questioning look.

"We'll have to use the grenade. I'm sorry, Sehun." Suho almost choked, he couldn't bare looking his young friend in the eyes.

Sehun was silent the first couple of seconds, calmly running his hand over Vivi's white curls. They had gone grey and quite disgusting overtime, but Sehun loved his dog nonetheless.

"There's no other way we can fetch Luhan and the others.." Sehun muttered to himself, his mouth close to the poodle's noggin.

"I'm sorry, Vivi, you'll have to be our hero.." His voice broke off, turning into soft sobs as beads of tears rolled down his cheeks and landed on the dog's head.

Minho put his hand on Sehun's shoulder, pitying the little boy. His dog was his only comfort, the only piece of home he had left, yet he was to sacrifice him.

"Won't it only attract more zombies?" Minho voiced the dreadful question.

"We're in a part of the island where we can afford being noisy." Suho clarified, judging by the precious experiences.

"Well," Kris scratched the back of his head. "I guess I'll be the one to drive."

~~

Minseok and Luhan were looking after an extremely sick Chanyeol in the meantime. They were already informed about the time Kris would come to pick them up and were now trying to make it through the chill night.

"Tomorrow morning we'll get to see Sehunnie." Luhan whispered dreamily, stretching a genuine smile from ear to ear.

"Yeah.. That's great." Minseok forced a smile, trying from the bottom of his heart to make it look sincere. He knew he had failed, so he chose to lie on his back and avoid Luhan's gaze.

They both knew, or at least suspected that Sehun had feelings for Luhan, thus none of them decided to comment on Minseok's obvious uneasiness.

The awkwardness lingered in the air for a while, keeping rest away.

Minseok turned and tossed like the sea until he found himself stroking Luhan's upper arm in a repetitive, soothing motion.

"The scars on your arms.." He whispered, looking at Luhan through his thick lashes.

"These are from when Sehun would hallucinate." Luhan explained in a small voice, putting his hand over the scars. "He once was so scared that he got a really bad panic attack, he screamed and wept, kicked and scratched.. I tried to calm him down, so I wrapped my arms around him as tightly as I could and held him until he gave up on massacring my flesh and was no longer afraid."

"You're incredible." Minseok released a tiny gasp. At that moment he felt his respect and admiration for Luhan rocket into the sky. His facial features refused to hide the amazement.

"Isn't it something a friend is supposed to do?" Luhan laughed softly, lacing his fingers with Minseok's. "For you... I'd die for you, Baozi."

Out of the blue, they heard Chanyeol starting to breathe heavily. The palms of his hands slammed against the floor as he pushed himself up and tried to slither towards the washroom.

"Hyungs... It's very sweet and all but---" He was cut in mid sentence as he retched all over the floor.

~~

Suho's team was up at dawn. Minho looked out of the barricaded window again to observe. All the infected had crawled into the shadows by then, except for the six still hanging around the supermarket.

"Seems like one of the seven that stalked us before is a party pooper." He joked, but there was no audience to appreciate his humor:

Sehun had jammed his ears with a couple of pillows as he curled into a ball and locked himself out of all sounds and senses. Suho stayed nearby, fighting the urge to comfort him for he wasn't certain if Sehun was hallucinating or grieving over Vivi.

"The less he hears and sees the better." Kris instructed, tossing the grenade from one hand to another. He had an unreadable mien whilst his eyes were wistfully staring into the distance.

"Sehunnie." Suho called softly, carefully approaching the boy.

The youngster flinched upon feeling his friend's touch, pressing his knees even closer to his chest.

"Let's go into the supply room, okay? I'll be there with you, okay?" Suho asked, soothingly stroking the boy's head.

Sehun nodded, trying to force some words out, but they came out in a gibberish.

"He's having a seizure.." Suho looked over at Minho, nervously biting his lip.

Adding up to the inconvenience, Vivi suddenly decided to bark (which he did rarely). That's when Sehun had a mental breakdown. The infected outside the small supermarket started to move towards the entrance, drumming their limbs on the thick glass doors.

Minho lost no time; he scooped Sehun into his arms as he managed and darted down the stairs, into the well isolated storage room.

Suho took Vivi by the leash and stormed outside through the back door. He tied the leash to a pole on the small parking, crying out a thousand apologies.

He took out a pocket knife and with with one last apology, he slashed the dog's violently wiggling leg so that the blood would attract the infected.

He sprinted towards the main entrance and as soon as he had the walkers' attention, he ran back.

Drenched in sweat and out of breath, he shut the door behind himself and slid down against it.

"Suho!" Minho shouted, running head first to him. He knelt down, grabbing Suho by the shoulders with eyes spread wide open. "That wasn't your job, are you out of your mind?!"

"Holy shit I saw my whole life flashing right before my eyes." Suho clutched his heart, gasping for air.

Loud, helpless barks soon turned into high pitched squeals, that's when Kris poked his head out of the second floor of the building and popped the lid of the grenade open.

The sound of explosion boomed all the way to Luhan's camp, making a thin wave of sound linger in their ears for a while.

Minseok sat bolt upwards, his eyebrows furrowing together.

"Are they out of their mind?" He questioned worriedly, moving towards the window in hopes of seeing anything. "That's gonna attract some deadass walkers for sure."

"Suho knows what he's doing." Luhan reassured, reaching for the transmitter.

"Mayday, mayday! Sehun? Suho? Anyone? What was the explosion about?"

In a second, Suho's trembling voice went through.

"Did it reach you guys? Kris will be at the meeting spot within next ten minutes, behold."

"Got it, we'll be waiting."

Once the short transmission was over, the eldest boy turned to Chanyeol, who had just passed out on them because of dehydration.

"Hang in there, buddy, just a little bit more."

~~

Suho sent Minho to look after Sehun while he helped Kris to load the truck. He came down to the main entrance, holding a bag of leftover weaponry. He swung the strap off of his shoulder and tossed it into the passenger seat of the truck.

"There are four bullets in my pistol, nine in Minho's rifle, fourteen in yours. That's all we've got." Suho sighed, giving his friend a morose look.

"That's gonna be enough." Kris smirked, carrying on loading boxes of canned food and medical supplies into the truck. As he fit another one in the back like a tetris block, Suho started to grow suspicious.

"That's too much, Kris." He looked him in the eyes as tension filled the air.

"That's about enough." Kris brushed it off, putting yet another box inside.

"Kris, the three of them won't fit in the truck. You'll be coming back once Chanyeol gets a little better, you won't need all these." Suho pointed at the pile resting next to the vehicle that Kris was obviously going to freight. "Kris!"

In a split second, there was a muzzle of a gun staring Suho right in the eye.

"Don't stand in my way, Junmyeon."

Seeing the gun pointed at him made something shift within Suho's mind. Following bare instincts and the momentum, he threw a punch in Kris' direction.

Sehun had just calmed down when he and Minho heard an unexpected gunshot. Minho nearly jumped out of his shirt and in a blink of an eye, he was already at the main entrance, watching the truck hit the road with all of their remaining weaponry and month worth of supplies.

"He betrayed us! Wu motherfucking Yifan!" Suho yelled from the top of his lungs, wallowing on the floor, a puddle of blood forming around his injured ear.

Minho tried to help him stand, but Suho pushed him away, persisting that they contacted the other team right away.

"Luhan! Tell Luhan now!" He yelled again, clutching the bleeding shell of his ear. "Minho, go get Luhan on the line for fuck's sake!"

Minho stubbornly picked Suho up off the floor, laying his arm over his shoulder. He shut the double door of the supermarket and carried the smaller man towards the transmitter.

"Mayday, mayday, mayday... Minseok, Luhan, he betrayed us! He left off on his own with all of our weapons and on our only vehicle. He betrayed us! Kris betrayed us!" Suho desperately cried into the microphone, aimlessly tapping buttons with his bloodied hand while Minho was delving through the shelves to get a fist aid kit.

On the other line, Luhan was sitting at the table with their gear, listening to Suho's broken, crispy voice ringing through the radio. He sat motionless, dumbfounded, beading cold sweat on the corners of his forehead. His lips parted the slightest as he tried to collect his thoughts.

Unintentionally, he glanced at Minseok, who was checking an unconscious Chanyeol for pulse.

"Kris betrayed us?" He repeated audibly louder for his partner to hear.

Minseok froze in place, his mouth shaping a straight line.

"At this rate Chanyeol must already have gotten anemia.. We need to make it to you." Luhan said quieter, turning his face away from his teammates' sight. "Listen, there's no way other way round, is there? If the mountain doesn't go to Muhammad, Muhammad will go to the mountain."

~~

"Minseok," Luhan called, pacing up and down the block as he tried to assemble a silencer. "We're doomed if we stay here. Well, Chanyeol is, for sure."

"There are tons of walkers outside and he's gonna die from food poisoning? That's so Chanyeol style." Minseok tried to joke, but couldn't even crack a smile.

"He needs some intravenous therapy and we've got nothing. That son of a bitch took off on his own, left Suho's team with no weapons and no vehicle. We have no food, we need to move on our own. If we're going to die, we might as well die trying." Luhan stated, loading the gun.

"What are you getting at?" Minseok wondered.

"You'll carry Channie, I'll clean the way." Luhan smirked.

"You're insane." Minseok shook his head. " There's an abandoned hospital on the way, you do realize that walkers might have started spilling out of there? We stand no chance."

"That's why I'll go first to clean the way at least halfway through, I'll be back to watch your back as you carry our giant."

"I'm not letting you go on your own." The cat-eyed male objected, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Baozi, you're going to stay here, pack the stuff we need to take and help Channie rehydrate. He's going to choke on his own puke or something if we leave him with no supervision. Don't forget who's won you thirty stuffed toys in the shooting gallery. Just trust me, okay?"

For they were in the outskirts of the island, there appeared to be fewer infected aimlessly wandering around, whilst the center was flooded by the dead.

Although Minseok was physically strong, he would practically be defenseless when hauling Chanyeol to Suho's camp, that's why Luhan wanted to have as little infected on their way as possible in order not to endanger his teammates.

With holsters strapped to his belt and ammo ready to go, Luhan headed outside. He walked out of Minseok's sight with no accidents, but as soon as he did, the elder boy started to panic.

"Please be safe, Luhan." He muttered into his clenched fist.

~~

Once Luhan was back, safe and in one piece, Minseok rejoiced. He greeted him with a strong embrace and Luhan hugged him back tighter. He then cupped his face and planted a strong, warm kiss on Minseok's lips.

Once they pulled apart, Minseok gave him a surprised, yet pleased grin.

"What was that for?" He asked, wiping the sweat off Luhan's forehead with a handkerchief.

"Just because I love you." Luhan smiled weakly and immediately moved out of the way to pick up the backpacks Minseok had readied.

The shorter boy felt that something was out of place, but he couldn't put his finger on it. He put Chanyeol on his back and the two were ready to head outside.

"Aye Suho, get Sehun on the line real quick." Luhan said merrily with a slightest shiver in his tone.

"I'm afraid that's impossible right now, he's in no condition to talk, but he does hear you."

"He hears me? It's enough. Sehunnie, Lu ge will be there soon. Keep strong, okay? We'll get going now. Please meet us with arms wide open."

Now on their way towards their friends' shelter, Minseok and Luhan were peacefully but hurriedly walking down the wide streets.

"Everything's so bright. Out of character for sure."

Indeed, the outskirts were in the midst blossom: the grass was dark green, leaves were starting to grow back. There was a train station nearby and like in a children's movie, there were flowers and grass growing out from in between the metal rails.

"Yeah.. It's almost beautiful." Luhan laughed humorlessly, carrying on watching his partner's back. "Baozi, don't hesitate. Walk boldly, I'm always watching your back, okay?"

Minseok was bewildered by the sudden outburst of Luhan's encouraging words. He was sure he was walking steadily and without looking back. What Luhan was saying wasn't exactly out of content, but definitely out of his understanding.

"Alright.. I trust you, Lu." Minseok forced himself to smile, feeling Chanyeol getting heavier on his back. "Won't it become troublesome getting ammunition now? We're leaving the gun shop really far behind."

"You'll have to find a way out." Luhan said monotonously. "Saving Chanyeol is the priority here."

"Yeah.. We'll have to get by."

"I know you can."

"What are you talking about?" Minseok couldn't take it anymore. He stopped on his tracks and spun on his heel to face Luhan.

The boy was perspiring heavily, looking around with scared eyes until they met Minseok's.

Once their glances locked together, Luhan's expression changed. His features softened and saddened visibly.

"You're so beautiful, Baozi."

"Luhan, you're acting strange and I don't like it"

"Please, keep moving. I'm excited to see Sehun and the others, I'm a little worried about his hallucinations and we've got a dying man on us. It's only normal I'm a little agitated right now." Luhan dismissed his partner's worry, giving a small, toothy smile.

~~

"They're here!" Suho exclaimed and darted out of the building. An armed with a knife Minho ran after him.

Luhan effortlessly took out a couple of walkers that were strolling in the supermarket's area, most likely lured there by the explosion or Kris' gunshot.

"Get Chanyeol help!" Minseok shouted, letting Minho take the large boy off his back and carry him inside.

"Suho, help me!"

"Coming!"

Once the weight had been lifted off his shoulders, Minseok stopped to catch a breath. Luhan stood next to him, waiting.

"Let's go in." The monotonous voice thrilled Minseok to the bone. Shivers ran down his spine as Luhan moved onward.

"Luhan!" Sehun came running from the building. A bright smile shining on his face.

He ran into Luhan's arms and held him for so long. He buried his face in the crook of Luhan's neck and just cried for a couple of minutes, strongly grasping the back of his shirt.

Minseok's face became pitiful as he observed the scene for mere seconds. With a sad smile, he passed the two and calmly walked where Suho and Minho had taken Chanyeol.

They had already attached him to a rally pack and were doing all they could to make him conscious again.

"You look troubled." Suho told Minseok nonchalantly, tossing him brief glances.

"Not gonna lie, Kris' betrayal still messes with my head."

"Tell me about it.." Suho sighed, draping a blanket over Chanyeol. "He was my best friend, or so I thought. I had known him for years and then he put a gun right up my face."

"And gave you a piercing.." Minseok added, looking at Suho's poorly bandaged ear. "When the soldiers were taking us to the shore and a wall of the walkers stood in our way, it was Kris who pulled us out of there. He saved us and then hurried back to get you. I thought he was a natural leader."

Suho swallowed noisily, biting his lip. "I think I know.. My parents must have sent him off to fetch me from the evacuated people. He didn't mean to get stuck here with me, Minho and a schizophrenic child." His voice quietened by the end as he ran his eyes over the walls.

"Where do you think he left to?" Minseok quizzed, laying his arms over the backrest of the couch.

"I think he might have tried luck with my family's mansion."

"Why'd he do that?"

"To find the means of escape. Helicopter, a yacht, hell if I know." The pale man shook his head.

Suddenly, there were hasty footsteps rushing up the stairs into the office. Sehun barged into the room, tears clinging to his lashes.

"Luhan is saying weird things! He won't come in and says he's got to leave!" The boy cried out and darted back to the entrance.

All the men on their feet rushed after him, coming down the stairs to see Luhan on his hands and knees, gagging and coughing uncontrollably.

Minseok picked him up off the ground and lightly patted his back, offering him water.

"There's no time." Luhan blurted out.

Agitated faces were all focused on him as Minseok brushed the wet bangs out of Luhan's face and tried to feel his temperature.

"You're burning, let's go inside.." Minseok said worriedly, but Luhan shook his head and just hugged him instead.

"Baozi, will you forgive me, if I can't go on with you anymore?" He enunciated in a tender tone, snaking his fingers through Minseok's hair.

"Why?" The older boy asked in a breaking voice, anxiously gripping random folds on Luhan's dirtied shirt.

"I'm sorry.. I'm so sorry.." Luhan broke out of the embrace and stepped back. His face, especially the eyes, showed a mix of sorrow and fear as he rolled up his sleeve to reveal a fairly fresh, round wound on the back of his forearm.

"No.." Minseok's eyes became the size of the moon as he dropped onto his knees. It felt like every joint in his body had suddenly been paralysed.

Suho and Minho unconsciously took each of Sehun's hands, both staggered by the scene in front of them.

"It's a bite.." Sehun muttered, hanging his head low as he started to perspire heavily, the two holding him could feel his pulse nearly bursting his veins open.

"Luhan.." Minseok was astounded. He couldn't even bring himself to cry. "It happened because I let you go on your own." He covered his face with his hands, hissing and cussing under his breath.

"It's nobody's fault but mine. I don't blame you for anything, Baozi, it's my own inattentiveness." Luhan said morosely, kneeling down to leave a kiss on Minseok's head.

Then he got back up on his feet and took a silencer out of the holster.

"Luhan, no! Wait!" Suho yelled, trying to shake the tears out of his eyes while he and Minho were holding back Sehun in the middle of another breakdown.

"Don't let me turn into one of them, guys." Luhan let the beads of tears spill out, forming rivers down his face.

Suho aggressively clutched the top of his head and let out a howl of pain.

His cry was only adding up to the agonizing feeling cutting through Minseok's chest, but he found the strength to stand and look Luhan in the eyes.

"Don't cry, Baozi. There's no time to mourn in the new world." Luhan forced a bright smile for him.

He checked the gun for remaining bullets.

"Suho, you're the best, honestly. Without a leader like you, we'd long be dead. Please tell Chanyeol that I'll miss him and I'm happy he was there to brighten up our grey days."

He detached the holster from his belt and let it loosely fall to the ground, forming a small cloud of dust at his feet.

"Minho, I haven't known you well, but you have such a kind heart. It's a relief that you're strong both mentally and physically, just like my Baozi. Take care of them well."

He started to raise the pistol with his trembling hand.

"Minseok. I wish we had more time, but it's starting to crawl into me. A little more and I'll go insane. Please, understand and don't try to stop me."

"I won't." Minseok told him strongly. He closed in and whispered something in Luhan's ear as tears started impetuously running down his chubby cheeks.

"Thank you." Luhan shut his eyes slowly. "I'm extremely proud I brought you here unharmed."

He looked at Sehun and then at the sky.

"Sehunnie, having a best friend like you has been the greatest joy. I believe in you and that despite all the difficulties, you can pull through."

"No! No! Put it down! Why are you trying to leave too?!" Sehun started crying and violently broke out of Suho and Minho's firm grip, dashing onto Luhan.

Minseok caught him midway and tucked him into a strong embrace, leaving him completely immobile as he moved a little further from Luhan.

"Sehunnie, I'm sorry." Minseok wept, trapping the tall boy's ears between his chest and the palm of his hand as he turned him away from the scene.

"Promise me to make it out alive." Luhan addressed no one in particular. He pressed the muzzle to the side of his head and with a faint smile, he pulled the trigger.

Luhan's life soared out of the bullet hole and in a second, his lifeless vessel collapsed onto the hard granite.


	2. Won't you give this man his wings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The initial shelter is no longer safe. It's time to move onto a new place and meet new people.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter's got to be my least favorite. It's quite sloppy and has totally been written with a quick hand. It's satisfying to see how much the story and my writing evolves throughout the chapters (yes I'm hinting that I've prewritten some). Turns out you never really admit to yourself how bad your story really is until you decide to publicize it. I'll work harder. Enjoy!

The group descended to chasms of misery, all swallowed up in melancholy in their own ways:

One thing they all had in common - they didn't speak a word to one another.

Sehun, despite Suho expecting him to throw a tantrum or have a seizure, was collected and calm, bu t undeniably deranged.

For the last couple of hours, he did nothing but dig. He hadn't let the shovel go for a split second, didn't eat, didn't have water. He continued digging Luhan's grave like it was his last will.

Minseok couldn't bare watching him, so he volunteered to look after Chanyeol while Suho was looking for food that would be easy on his stomach after the poisoning.

Out of everyone, only Minho was not as close to Luhan, that's why he took the burden of wrapping up his body.

His heart ached as he draped the white cloth over his face. He looked like a child at peace and it burned Minho to the core to let something as beautiful decay in the ground.

"Sehunnie, take a break." He commanded, crossing his arms over his chest, but the boy wouldn't listen. Sehun didn't let anyone help him with digging up the grave, refused to take a break and even showed aggressive behavior when Minho tried to forcefully stop him.

Suho could hear nothing but the sound of the metal shovel cutting into the ground and it was driving him insane, so he was relieved to hear Minho's voice. It felt less like being in a bad dream, even though they were still living a nightmare.

"There's no time to mourn in the new world." He quoted their deceased friend, tossing yet another pack of fruity oatmeal into the basket.

"That's what differentiates us from those infected, Luhan, we're still humans and we need some time to mourn." He mumbled to himself, feeling his eyes sting.

Minseok had been out of his boat ever since Luhan died. He just sat in the corner of the room with his hand obscuring the view of his face. One eye was poking through the gap between his fingers, an unblinking orb with no glister of life whatsoever.

The clock on the wall was showing twelve twenty five PM. It had been over four hours since Luhan passed and it was only going to be worse now that Chanyeol was coming back to senses.

He woke up with a childish scowl on his face, as if someone interrupted the best dream he had ever had. He sat up and looked around only to find himself in an unknown environment and with no one but his hyung in the room.

"Minseok hyung, you okay?" He asked lazily. "It feels like there's a hole in my stomach." He said as he kicked the blanket off and lifted his shirt up, just in case.

Having reassured himself that there was no gaping hole in his torso, he proceeded to study his surroundings.

Suddenly his eyes lit up and a toothy smile shone on his face.

"Did we make it to Suho hyung's camp? Oh my goodness!" He tried to stand up, but found himself so weak that he had to hold onto every piece of furniture in the office.

"Hyung, I'm starting to freak out, talk to me." He pleaded so desperately that Minseok could no longer take it.

"We made it, Chanyeol, but Luhan didn't." He forced the bitter words out of himself. The eye poking through his fingers shut and he sobbed softly, shaking his head.

Emotionally shaken, Chanyeol lost balance and plopped down, open-mouthed.

~~

When Sehun was finished digging the grave, he ran the sleeve of his shirt over his forehead and sat for a couple of seconds.

"Are you done? Let's call Minseok and start the burial." Minho enunciated, sadly looking at the body sack lying at the entrance.

"I'll do it." Sehun said through quickened breaths and crawled out of the grave.

Suho saw the boy entering the shop and rushed after him, wondering if he was okay.

"It's time to say goodbye." Sehun announced in a shaking tone. "Let's go, we need to say goodbye." He repeated, balling his fists as everybody had little to no reaction to his words.

"Sehunnie, drink." Suho touched the boy's shoulder and handed him a bottle of water from his basket. "Are you okay, Chanyeol?"

"Are you really asking this now?" Chanyeol scoffed humorlessly, still running his hands up and down his head in disbelief. "I'd rather not wake up at all than wake up to such news."

"Can I put him in the grave, Sehun?" Minseok's voice traveled in the air as his sad eyes met Sehun's.

The boy hesitated for a while, but then gave a short nod and darted out of the office. He wanted to hold Luhan for the last time.

He sat on the granite floor outside the shop and rested his best friend's head on his lap, gently running his fingers through the thick strands of his hair. Then he touched his cold face that had taken a tint of blue and in a sorrowful tone said:

"Rest well, little Lu. I love you."

A single tear slipped through Sehun's eye and landed on Luhan's lips. The boy wiped it off softly, appreciating his friend's pretty face for the last time before he covered it with a cloth again.

Once all of them had gathered, Minseok scooped Luhan's body into his arms and carefully laid it in the grave.

Before they'd start filling it up, he remembered there was something he wanted to do.

Minseok hurriedly reached for Luhan's hand sticking out of the cloth and took off his wooden beaded bracelet.

Immediately, he came up to Sehun and tied the bracelet on his wrist.

"You often had matching friendship items, I helped Luhan to shop for this particular one and I noticed yours has gone. He'd want you to have this."

Flattered and completely broken, Sehun hugged his small hyung and squinted his eyes tightly. He was wholeheartedly grateful, but at that point could no longer express it through words.

~~

The sun was about to start coming down and Suho felt extremely burdened. As a leader, he knew he should encourage everyone to move on and start looking for a new vehicle to be able to get weaponry and defend themselves, but a part of him couldn't interrupt such a tragic moment.

In the end, he decided it would be the best to wait a little since he was also deeply scarred by his friend's betrayal and Luhan's passing away.

He couldn't help noticing that Chanyeol was acting out of character. He had always been the mood maker, but now it felt like it was him weighing the team's emotional state down.

Suho walked into the room with another bowl of freshly cooked oats and sat down next to Chanyeol, noticing the the plate of food he had brought him earlier hadn't been touched.

"You haven't eaten in days, Chanyeol. You need strength."

"It's because of me.." Chanyeol gnawed his fingernails, anxiously looking at the floor.

"What?"

"Because Minseok hyung was carrying me, he couldn't protect Luhan.."

"It's not your fault you got food poisoning. There was nothing you could do about it." Suho almost found it funny how Chanyeol blamed himself for what had happened.

"There's only one person to blame and it's Kris." Suho grumbled, clenching his fist. "If he hadn't stolen the truck, you'd all have made it here safe."

Chanyeol seemed to rejoice a little and now really tried to eat up. The rally pack alone wasn't enough to give him all the nutrition. He didn't want to slow the team down any longer.

"What's next, leadernim?" Minho knocked on the frame of the door, momentarily stealing their attention.

"I don't know.. I feel so useless." Suho let out a small laugh, rubbing his eyes with his thumb and an index finger.

"Well, we all do right now, but at least one of us is being productive." Minho grinned cunningly. "Sehun has hacked the island's security and we have access to all the cameras in areas which still have electricity."

"No way!" Chanyeol enthused. "I wanna see." He grabbed his bowl and excitedly ran down the stairs, into the storage room where Sehun was usually using his laptop.

~~

"Can you see your home from here?" Chanyeol gasped, pointing at the screen.

"I only have access to bank and shop security cameras around the center. Few on the outskirts. Everything's crammed with zombies..."

Out of the blue, Minseok came running into the store, shutting the door and starting to jam it with every other shelf and piece of furniture in his reach.

"We've got a problem!" He yelled on top of his lungs. "There's a swarm of walkers outside and they're moving onto us!"

Minseok didn't misuse the word 'swarm'. If anything, he had underestimated the army of the dead moving towards the building.

"Alright, everyone, shut the blinds, turn the lights off, we're going to quietly sit through this." Suho commanded, making a beeline towards the back door.

Everyone was busy barricading entrances at the front of the supermarket when Sehun noticed that there was a slightly open window in the staff room on the first floor. He quietly walked through the dark aisles, trying to not draw any walker's attention to himself. Having entered the room, he saw Suho in the distance gesturing him to stay near the ground.

Sehun nodded and crouched even lower, carefully outstretching his arm to push the window shut.

As his fingers carefully glided across the frame and grasped the handle, he found it more comfortable to stand up, that way he could put more force and seal it securely, but much to his surprise, a grey, sickly hand snatched his wrist from outside the window, followed by an inhuman growl.

Sehun's scream filled the air, making the group an obvious bait for the undead.

Because their cover was blown, Minseok ran up to the maknae without worrying about being noticed and chopped the walker's hand right off using his machete.

As Sehun fell back first to the ground and continued to scream, Minseok forced the window shut. Turning around, he saw that all the walkers were now banging on the glass outside the supermarket and it wouldn't take them too long to break in.

"Oh no.." He muttered as he draped Sehun's arm over his shoulder and rushed him into the office on the second floor.

"And now we're screwed." Minho exhaled heavily, pressing his forehead to the cold wall. "Any plans?"

"I've got a suggestion." Chanyeol raised his hand. "Just now, Sehun was showing me the cameras. There's a highway not too far from us, we can easily get a car off the road."

"Easily?!" Suho scoffed. "Bring the laptop here, I need to see."

Chanyeol wasn't wrong. There _was_ a highway nearby and it was surprisingly free of zombies. It got Suho wondering whether they were mainly moving in large groups. But moving where or why?

"We can't make it through all these outside." He shook his head, nervously nibbling on his bottom lip.

"We don't need to." Chanyeol spoke again. "There is a trapdoor leaving to the roof, right? Most of you will have to be our ... distraction. Meanwhile I'll sneak through the back door and run for the highway, will get a truck and drive it back."

"You make it sound too easy. These stinking dead are everywhere, you'll need to take at least one of us with you."

"I'll go." Minseok didn't hesitate to volunteer, tightly gripping the handle of his weapon. "We only have one silencer left and I'll trust Chanyeol with it, I'll take the rest on."

"And what happens when you get the car? There's a sea of the dead outside, you can't just run over them and pick us up." Suho retorted again, making the eldest boy run out of patience.

"There's little to no chance to survive right now but we're willing to go out there and risk our asses to get everyone's neck out of water, so can you stop with this distrust? Because your douche of a friend left you behind doesn't mean that everyone else will too." Minseok fired out, looking Suho dead in the eyes.

"It's not about Kris, I just want to think a few steps ahead so that we all make it out of here in a whole, alive piece." Suho replied through gritted teeth, angrily leaning over as he punched a wall to his side.

Minseok sucked it up as an adult should, instead of starting an argument with Suho, he was more concerned about the sound of crumbling glass outside.

"See that caravan over there? We'll go with this one. If we do get it, we'll have you guys jump right off the roof, if we can't, then we'll find two smaller cars and we'll have one of us distract the zombies while the other one will rescue everyone." Chanyeol tried to calm Suho down by proposing what seemed like a thought out plan.

"Okay, sounds good." The pale man finally gave in. "Minho, onto the roof, shoot all you like without wasting too many bullets, just make sure you're the center of their attention. I'll be down here distracting them from the inside while Sehun will be packing his laptop and supplies. Understood?"

~~

Chanyeol and Minseok effortlessly slipped through the back door of the supermarket and sprinted in the direction of the highway.

Minseok had been a football enthusiast, that's why his body and his stamina were the best out of all, with the exception of Luhan.

He kept his trusty machete on his back and a dagger in his hand. He didn't like to shoot and he certainly wasn't very good at it. When it came to self defense, he'd much rather rely on his own strength and agility than a gun that may or may not hit the target and will sooner or later run out of bullets.

The two ran through alleys generous on space and small blocks that proudly stood above any other building on the outskirts of the island.

The sun was settig lower, the danger was rising. The two kept close to each other, choosing to simply ignore singular walkers unless they were directly in their way.

"Do you know the way? 'Cuz I'm already off track!" Minseok said to the tall boy running next to him.

"It's a highway? Hard to miss!" He grinned, enjoying the cool spring breeze hitting him in the face.

Once again, Chanyeol wasn't wrong. They reached the highway and the taller boy stopped to take a breather. Minseok didn't seem as tired, so he kept an eye out for his younger peer.

"Hyung, behind you!" Chanyeol coughed out, trying to calm his heartbeat so he could aim for the zombie limping behind Minseok.

"Don't shoot!" Minseok yelled as he threw his dagger and pierced the walking corpse's forehead. It ungraciously fell to the ground and Minseok ran to fetch his weapon.

"Woah." Chanyeol gave him a toothy grin, holding onto his knees as he continued to catch his breath. "I don't think we ended up in the right part of the highway, let's keep walking."

The two hurriedly walked along the road. It wasn't too crowded by all the abandoned vehicles, but they could see the branches of the road coming out of the center of the island that were seemingly busier in the distance.

"There's probably a lot to loot in these cars."

"Maybe we can come back later."

Silence fell upon the two. It wasnt the 'focused on the mission' silence, but an uncomfortable, suffocating one.

"Hyung, it's not going away.." The tall boy finally breached the agonizing hush hung in the air. "I feel terrible.. Because you had to haul me all the way Luhan.."

"If Luhan heard you he'd slap you across the face." Minseok cut him off, not sparing him a glance. "We all know it's not your fault and we're all glad that you're with us right now." He said morosely, feeling a prick in his chest area.

"I'm so sorry.."

Out of the blue, they were distracted by a voice booming through one of the cars. They shuddered, reading their weapons.

Having approached the source of the noise, they realized that it was only the radio inside the car.

"Hyungs, can you hear me?" Sehun kept repeating over and over again. "I can see you at the car, but I can't hear you, so please do the chicken dance if you can hear me."

"That brat." Chanyeol laughed and started to scan their surroundings to spot a camera. Once he found it, he started energetically waving at it to notify Sehun that they could hear him.

"Hyungs, you need to hurry, they've managed to make a huge crack in the door, it will most likely break soon. There are three walkers on your way. The zombies already cracked supermarket's door, so please be quick. The caravan is in 500 meters West. If you keep going West you'll find the caravan."

Chanyeol and Minseok obediently dashed into the said direction, but were quite surprised to not stumble upon any of the three walkers Sehun warned them about.

"He might have been hallucinating again." Minseok assumed when an infected jumped him unexpectedly.

He fell back first onto the road and started to wrestle the attacker. Chanyeol rushed to his aid from behind some other cars and kicked the walker off of his hyung, then shot it through the silence gun with his shaking hands.

"Are you okay? Did it get you?" He scanned Minseok with widened eyes and pure panic written over his face.

"I'm fine. Just hit my elbow pretty bad." Minseok waved him off, closing and opening his arm again to loosen it.

~~

Back at the supermarket, Suho faced yet another problem.

Illusions started to take over Sehun's brain again. Convinced that there was a horrifying shadow moving onto them from behind the aisles, he started shooting the walls whilst crawling on the floor, screaming.

"It's coming! It's right in front of me!" He forced his eyes shut.

Suho ran up to him and carefully reached for his hand.

"It's me, Junmyeon. Don't be scared. I'm with you." He took the boy's hand.

Sehun freaked out and tried to break free, but soon found himself safe, yet scared, in Suho's hold.

"Calm down, it'll be gone soon. I'm here to protect you." He kept on chanting, having one arm hugging Sehun to his chest whilst he had his pistol ready to shoot in the other hand.

He knew he was at a huge disadvantage in a sitting position, but he couldn't make Sehun stand up yet.

"Minho!" He called loudly as one of the zombies smashed it's hand through the glass and then stuck its face in the opening.

The smaller shards of glass peeled the skin away from the wicked face of the walker, exposing its rotten teeth and gums.

Minho stormed down the stairs and when he saw the face of a zombie sticking through the gaping hole in the door, he wordlessly snatched Sehun up and darted up again, about to hide in the office.

"No! If we lock ourselves in the office we're done for!" Suho yelled, dragging the backpacks full of supplies. "Onto the roof!"

About to climb the last ladder, Suho remembered that Sehun hadn't packed his laptop in order to get through to Chanyeol and Minseok.

Giving it a second thought, Suho looked up at Minho who had just taken the backpacks from him and was now landing him a hand.

"I'll get the laptop!" Suho scooted downstairs again and into the storage room. He pooled the wires and chargers together with the laptop and headed back.

By the time he made it to the second floor, he heard the glass door bursting into pieces.

"Oh crap crap crap." He cussed under his breath, his forehead shining with cold sweat.

Climbing the ladder wasn't the easiest task when holding a heavy computer and as he tried to hand it in to Minho, he felt a tug on his leg.

"Suho!" Minho exclaimed on top of his lungs. He tried to grab his hand when something pulled him down by the ankle.

The palms of his hands stung and bled from the friction, but he managed to kick the infected's arms off before they dragged him all the way down.

Minho then reached for his arm and quickly pulled him onto the roof, slamming the trapdoor shut.

"Are you okay?!" Minho asked loudly.

The wind had been getting stronger ever since Chanyeol and Minseok left. It looked to Minho that they'd find themselves in a thunderstorm.

"Yeah.. I am but.." Suho moved his hair out of his face, looking at Sehun who was sitting on the roof, head ducked and eyes squinted in fear.

Was it luck or a blessing, they heard an engine roaring in the distance and soon saw a caravan speeding in their direction from behind a trashed alley.

Suho cracked a smile in the corner of his mouth, forcing air out of his lungs in an attempt to laugh. "We're saved.."

"Hyuuuung! Go to the other side!" Chanyeol stuck his torso out of the sun roof, waving both hands at Suho.

Having run over a few zombies, Minseok swiftly paused the car behind the supermarket. The three of their friends were on board sooner than the infected could walk around the building to get them.

The interior of the caravan was quite narrow but cozy. There was a bunk, a couple of drawers and cabinets, a tiny kitchen and even a toilet.

Minho moved to the passenger seat next to Minseok, making more room for the others in the back and making Minseok a company. Chanyeol searched the drawers for anything 'exciting' (like a chocolate bar). Suho laid Sehun on the bunk, sitting right next to him and holding his hand.

"I forgot my laptop." Sehun said sorrowfully, beading tears in his eyes.

"I got your laptop." Suho smiled, giving his hand a squeeze. His eyes wandered around the car anxiously, with sensible uneasiness.

"Good job you guys, I was so worried about you." Suho addressed Chanyeol who was trying to secretly munch on a snickers bar he just found.

"Oh, yeah, thanks." He said with a mouth full of chocolate as he slammed the drawer closed.

Suho laughed softly, relaxing for the time being until he remembered that they had no destination whatsoever.

"Minseok hyung." He called the driver who was focused on the road ahead.

"Do we have enough gas? We forgot to plan an escape route."

"Yeah, I figured. I'm driving towards the gun shop. I've been there before with Lu, it's dangerously close to downtown, but there is a gas station right outside of it and tons of weaponry to choose from, unless someone's looted it clean."

"With the night and rain falling down so inconveniently, we don't have a better option." Minho joined the conversation, tiredly stretching.

"Alright." Suho sighed in defeat.

He hated to risk, but was slowly coming to realise that in the new world every other step was a risk and it was unavoidable.

Chanyeol sat on the floor, leaning his back to the bunk Sehun was lying on. The younger boy was tenderly playing with the wooden beads of the bracelet on his hand, looking with wistful eyes.

Chanyeol stuck his arm over his shoulder, handing the candy to Sehun.

"Whatchu thinking about, Sehunnie?" He asked casually.

Sehun took a bite of the chocolate bar straight from Chanyeol's hand and thoroughly chewed it before he answered:

"Luhan."

The air became heavy with languor upon the mention of Luhan's name. Everyone hushed unintentionally.

"I've known him for nine years."

"Sehunnie and Luhan go way back.." Suho added, dreamily looking into nowhere.

"How old were you when you met?" Chanyeol wondered, feeling a little lethargic from all the adventures.

"I was nine. Luhan was seventeen."

"There was such a big gap?" Chanyeol's eyes fluttered open as his expression shifted into a mix of impressed and confused. "And you guys were still so close?"

"I've never had anyone closer." Sehun muttered, rolling to his side to face the wall as a tear spilled out if his eye.

Minseok was engrossed in driving when memories of the past started to flood his mind.

He remembered it all like it was yesterday: Meeting Luhan on his new football team, becoming friends overnight, Luhan constantly bragging about his genius friend and wanting them to meet sooner.

When Minseok was first introduced to Sehun, a few months after he and Luhan had become friends, Sehun was only 15. He was tall even then, about the same height as Luhan (although he did overgrow him later), had childish features, yet still looked older than Minseok.

Minseok was bewildered as of why Luhan made him hang out with a bratty teenager, but the second Sehun opened his mouth, he felt belittled.

The kid was the definition of genius: mature, collected, educated to the point he'd make Einstein feel stupid, he had thoughts and ideas that were out of this world.

At the age of thirteen he was hired by ITSM and even had an insight of techno labs. They said they'd hire him earlier, but they wanted him to be _at least_ a teenager so that fewer people would be ignorant enough to look down upon him.

Minseok realized how insanely passionate Sehun was about computers and IT management when he was told that at the age of nine, he overworked a processor and it blew up in his face, causing him to be hospitalised. Luhan was part timing as a nurse at his mother's hospital at that time, that's how they got to know each other.

Turned out the second accident would cost Sehun his bright future.

He was badly electrocuted at work when he was 14, since then, he slowly started to develop schizophrenia and have hallucinations. That's when the world around his started to crumble:

He lost his job, he lost his friends, parents tried to keep him safe by restraining him from working with machines. Only Luhan stayed loyal. He never looked down at him with pity, never treated him differently.

Sehun would never forget how Luhan helped him feel like a normal part of the society, never let him feel outcasted, didn't turn his back upon him even when his fits of hallucinations started to leave a visible trail on Luhan's skin.

"Minseok?" The oldest boy was forced out of the train of thought by Minho's surprised voice.

Coming back to senses, he noticed that the car had stopped and that darkness had loomed over the city.

"We ran out of fuel." He said in a fed-up tone and thoughtlessly banged his head on the steering wheel.

"Hyung, no!" Minho tried to stop him but he was too late. The horn of the caravan boomed so loudly that it scared awake everyone in the car.

Minseok lifted his head slowly, his mouth shaping an O as his eyebrows raised up high.

"Oh my fucking shit." He slapped his already stinging forehead. Before he knew it, there were infected moving onto them from all the different directions.

"Everyone, we're out of gas and in major trouble! The gun shop is within sight, though! I suggest we run for our lives!"

~~

"I heard a horn!" The man announced merrily, grabbing his sniper rifle as he ran to the roof.

"We all did, Chen." Another one yawned, carrying on building castles using the ammunition boxes.

"It might have been a zombie."

"Zombies don't do that!" Chen objected, reloading his gun with a smug smile present on his face.

"I'll stay here, you go with him, Baekhyun."

"Got it." Baekhyun abandoned playing with boxes and dashed after Chen, hanging his binoculars around his neck.

"I told you those weren't zombies!" Chen enthused, watching someone fighting off the infected through his rifle's scope.

"Baekhyun, I got a cutie on my aim." He informed, feeling excitement flow from his toes all the way through to the muzzle of his rifle.

Baekhyun was taken aback when Chen started to shoot.

"What are you doing?"

"Cleaning the way for cutie."

"You shouldn't do that, that ain't our business."

"Look at him swinging that machete like Rambo." Chen carried on commentating the scene, hosting his imaginary radio show.

"He's not alone!" He exclaimed. "They have a Tarzan too. And an oversized yoda."

Baekhyun nodded, staring through the binoculars.

"Yixing said we shouldn't let people near." He reminded his friend, giving him a strict look.

"Are you gonna leave them out there at night? In such weather?"

"Yes." Baek blurted nonchalantly.

"Well, I won't." Chen retorted and kept shooting the zombies around the 'cutie'.

"I'm telling Yixing you are out of your mind."

The brunet scooted down to the lobby, reporting to their chosen leader.

"There are five people, they don't have much guns on them. Two of them are carrying giant backpacks, supposedly full of supplies."

"Are they all near?"

"No, one has happened to come closer than the rest of his group, maybe they're not even in the same group. He only has a melee weapon."

Yixing laughed faintly. "You don't say 'melee' in real life."

"Well, I do in League of Legends." Baekhyun laughed back, hopping on top of the table. He started swaying his legs back and forth, waiting for Yixing to make a decision.

"Let's try to get their friend in here first." He thought aloud, shrugging.

"You have no idea what you're doing, do you?"

Yixing's bottom lip overlapped his top one as he wrinkled his forehead and shrugged again.

"Let's see who we're working with. We can later use him as a hostage if his friends mean no good."

"You're willing to let them in? Come on." Baekhyun whined, jumping off the table. He continued to whine under his breath all the way up to the roof.

As he laid on his stomach next to Chen and started looking out of his binoculars again, he couldn't help _feeling_ Chen's lips curl up triumphantly.

"You win." He announced with a long sigh.

"Hell to the yeah." Chen shot the last infected in the guest's way, grabbed his rifle and stormed down into the lobby.

"The cutie's mine! I'm greeting him first!" He grinned, quickly switching to a fresh magazine.


	3. You owe nothing but to care

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the new world, you learn to distrust your own species.

It didn't take a genius to realize that someone had covered Minseok. Someone with exceptional shooting skills, too.

The boy stood in front of the closed garage doors, expecting them to open any moment now.

_"If they wanted to kill me, they'd shoot me in the head long ago."_ He thought, hesitating to bang on the door.

He looked back to make Sure his team was following, but only had he noticed that he managed to wander way ahead of others, the garage door rolled open and a blinding light filled the atmosphere, flooding Minseok's vision.

"Go! We're coming too!" He heard Suho shout from the distance and with a hesitant nod, he walked in.

He wasn't completely surprised to be greeted by a tip of a sniper rifle staring him in the eye.

"Hey cutie, why don't you drop that sharp thing in your hand." A young man with high cheekbones chanted calmly. The natural curl of his lips made it look like he was constantly smiling, what made Minseok quite uneasy.

"Cutie..?" He cringed, tossing his machete to the side.

"That dagger too."

Minseok obediently rid himself of all the weaponry and raised his hands in surrender. The garage door closed again and panic rose from the pit of his stomach.

"Why are you closing the door?! My friends are still there!"

"Don't worry, I'm not going to leave them out there. I just want to ensure myself and my friends." The cheekbone boy smiled. "Now turn around."

Minseok breathed heavily as he carefully spun on his hill, keeping his hands close to his head.

Without a superfluous word, the cheekbone boy hit Minseok with the back of his rifle and knocked him out.

"I thought you liked him." Baekhyun pondered aloud, walking out of the nearby room, armed with a shotgun.

"You can't even shoot that properly." His friend scoffed, stepping over the unconscious body lying at his feet to stand in front of the door.

"Shut up, everyone knows you better not mess with the guy with a shotgun." Baekhyun replied, jokingly pointing it at his teammate.

"Can we at least pretend that we've got our shit together?" Yixing exhaled wearily, reloading his favorite assault rifle.

"That's exactly what I'm doing, but Chen won't work with me on this one." Baekhyun complained. He jumped in place excitedly, waiting for Suho's team to reach the shop.

Seconds seemed to stretch like centuries whilst Yixing's group was on the hold, but once the voices from the outside finally closed in, Baekhyun was impatient enough to open the garage door without a delay.

"Minseok hyung!" Chanyeol exclaimed, about to run up to his unconscious friend when Chen poked him in the chest with the barrel of his rifle and he bounced off, coughing.

"Drop all of your guns and make three steps back." Yixing commanded, keeping the four of them under the aim.

"There are infected catching up on us, don't you think it's not the best time?!" Suho barked back in annoyance, worriedly throwing glances over his shoulder.

"Don't you think it's not the best time to complain?! Just do what I say and we'll settle."

"What did you do to him?!" Chanyeol asked about Minseok, putting his gun at the frame of the door.

When all of them had finished laying their weapons down and moved back, Baekhyun walked over to the entrance and kicked the guns as far away as he could.

"Come in." He gave them a smug smile as he slowly turned around.

"He looked so cool." Chanyeol whispered to Sehun when suddenly Baekhyun released an endless line of ouches and limped back to Yixing's side.

Sehun snickered, hanging his head low.

"He's like you."

~~

Minseok woke up to the same sniper that knocked him out sat on the backrest of the couch he was lying on. He was casually cleaning the barrel of his rifle whilst humming a slow melody.

"Does your head hurt?"

"...Why'd you do that?!"

The sniper laughed, his cheekbones shining as his perfectly straight eyebrows bent. "I just want to stay alive." He shrugged.

"So you beat the consciousness out of the defenseless?" Minseok outraged, balling his hands into fists. It felt like his skull had been split open, like he was having the worst hangover of his life, but the ridiculousness of the situation made him ignore the pain.

"But I did save your life, Rambo, you're fucking welcome." Amusement vanished off of the sniper's face. He creased his eyebrows crossly and stomped out of the room, loudly shutting the door behind himself.

Minseok frowned and took a look around.

He remembered being inside that gun shop, but that building barely looked anything like before. Only the many posters on the walls and empty gun racks were giving the original purpose of that place away.

In a moment, the sniper came rushing back in together with Suho.

"Minseok hyung, thank goodness!" Suho rejoiced. "We were so worried."

"You'll have to continue to be worried unless your friend learns how to wield a gun. Don't expect any more kind strangers to swat the zombies off of you when you recklessly come at them with kitchen knives." The high-cheekboned sniper grumbled, finding a seat in the further corner of the room.

"That ain't a kitchen knife and if you, bratty kid, like to hide and shoot them from the distance, I like to do it my way." Minseok gritted his teeth, clenching his fist until his knuckles turned white.

"Why are you creating tension? I wanted to start off friendly, but you keep barking at me!"

"You need to learn how human interaction works, okay? And learn to respect your hyung!"

"Honorifics is not what you should care about now!" The sniper retorted, growing furious. "Get over it! Hyung!" He added in defeat, looking down at his feet as he went back to toying with his rifle.

Suho shook his head hesitantly, crouching down to whisper next to Minseok sitting on the couch.

"Hyung, please don't take it personally, but you know it's common for people to---"

"To mistake me for the youngest, I'm not delusional, I can see it. But I'm a 27 year old man, he won't stop and I'm tired of this shit."

At this point, the sniper boy couldn't help but crack, having overheard their whispering.

"Can you leave?" Minseok raised his voice, pointing at the door.

"You barge in my shelter and tell me to leave? Can't cope with our rules, then just go, you're nothing but a hindrance at this point."

"I brought my people here because I've been here countless of times before you turned this into your shelter. I know this place like my five fingers and if you think I'll leave because some scared children claim this shop as theirs, you're wrong." Minseok stated, standing up to intensify the atmosphere.

"Until Sehun locates a safer place, we're staying here. We'll take the weapons and ammunition we need and get gas for our caravan, then you can blow this place up for all I care."

"Over my dead body." The sniper smirked, hopping off the chair. His hand gripping his gun securely.

"How about you two leave the negotiation to the leaders?" Suho coughed into his fist and placed his hands on his hips.

"Chen, are you ever going to stop talking back?" A voice wondered, coming from the other room until a silhouette showed, leaning on the frame of the door.

It was the first time Minseok saw the man who had just entered and his first impression was intimidating:

He had a strong build despite his petite posture, tattoos beautifying his chest and sleeves, a cowboy hat sitting on his head loosely and an ever so friendly smile on his face.

"I won't just stand there silently when someone's throwing fire out of their mouth. He wants to take this place by the horns, Yixing! Will you condone this?!" Chen objected.

"Let's go get your ear fixed." Yixing ignored his younger teammate and gestured Suho to follow him into the lobby.

"I'll be in the shooting range." Chen announced and stormed past his leader. In a second, he poked his head through the door again and with a mischievous smile, said:

"Feel free to join me, Rambo hyung."

~~

Chen carefully chose a pistol from the many in the shooting range. He outstretched his arm and tested it in a shooting position before handing it over to Minseok.

"This is the lightest one. Should be good enough for a newbie."

"You're giving me a gun?" Minseok cocked a brow as the cold metal made contact with the palm of his hand.

"I've saved your life before, I believe you won't make me regret putting mine in your hands." The younger boy's eyes flickered as they met Minseok's.

The older boy scrunched up his nose, nodding his head as he stood in one of the slots and held the pistol up to aim for the training targets in the distance.

"Thank you." He said softly, about to pull the trigger when Chen stopped him.

"This room is soundproof, but you don't want the echo hitting you back in the eardrum." He instructed, reaching for the pair of protective ear gear hanging on the side.

"I mean it, thank you..." Minseok put the pistol down and turned to look the younger boy in the face.

"No problem." Chen smiled bashfully. "I'm Jongdae." He stuck his hand out.

"I thought they called you Chen." Minseok shook the boy's hand, eyeing him suspiciously.

"That's just a nickname. You know, it's easier to yell out Chen when you need your back covered." Jongdae explained, brushing it off. "Aren't you going to introduce yourself? Or do you usually go by Rambo?"

"I think you've heard Suho call me by my name."

"And you're the one to lecture me about formalities?" Jongdae laughed weakly, nudging him. "Of course I've heard him. The 'guardian' leader of yours."

"Our argument. You may be ignorant but so was I. Let's just leave it to our leaders as Suho suggested, alright?" Minseok rambled, avoiding Jongdae's gaze. There was a pang of regret in his chest now that Chen started to treat him hospitably. They hadn't even started negotiating and Minseok knew he was too quick to pick a fight. He felt apologetic.

Chen then held the earphones up suggestively and gave a brief smile. "Please put these on before shooting, Minseok hyung?"

~~

"That ear is infected. Geez, what an idiot bandaged you?" Yixing quizzed, prepping his tools to sanitize Suho's wound.

Suho chuckled humorlessly, shooting his eyes in Minho's direction. "One idiot did." He smiled lovingly.

Minho wrinkled his forehead, pretending to whistle as he looked elsewhere.

"You guys knocked Minseok out to talk us into throwing our guns away, you won't let us near any weaponry in this gun shop and you confiscated our supplies too. Can we get straight to the point?" Suho wondered, giving Yixing a side eye.

  The tattooed man clicked his tongue, looking disappointed.

There was a stab in the shell of Suho's ear as an alcohol-soaked cotton touched his wound. He kept silent, waiting for Yixing to say something.

"Fifty-fifty?"

"That's not going to work. There's five of us and we don't have enough food to leave you with an advantage on top of everything." Suho shook his head, hissing from the sudden pain.

"You shouldn't move your head when I'm treating an ear injury.."

"Right, sorry."

~~

"Soooo, can I touch it?" The droopy-eyed boy asked with a devilish smile plastered on his lips.

"I don't think I'm comfortable with that." Chanyeol gulped, beading sweat on the side of his forehead. "I barely know you."

"I'm Baekhyun. Can I touch it now?"

Chanyeol sighed in defeat.

"Go ahead.."

Jubilant, Baekhyun crawled closer to the tall boy, barely leaving a gap between them. He hurriedly reached for Chanyeol's  ear and fiddled with the pointy edge of it.

"Have you seen star wars?"

"Please, don't." Chanyeol swatted Baekhyun's hand away, mustering an annoyed expression.

"Take it easy, I'm joking. You're much more handsome than---"

"Don't say it."

"Than Yoda."

"Screw you." Chanyeol pulled on the 'ou', pushing the brunet away.

Baekhyun's carefree laughter filled the air as he childishly tugged on Chanyeol's sleeve.

"Are you from our island?" He quizzed, rocking his legs back and forth.

"No, I was traveling by myself with no budget or a certain plan. Made friends with a sailor that brought me here.. Wrong place, wrong time, but what can you do now." The tall boy said, saddening visibly.

"Really? So your friends and family are somewhere outside this stinkhole. That must be good to know."

"If you say so." Chanyeol puffed some air out, trying to force a laugh. "I'd rather know for sure if they're dead or alive than sit here guessing."

"C-come on, don't hang your nose." Baekhyun stuttered, trying to lighten the mood, but recalling his own background only made it a challenge. "It hurts. It really hurts. I lived here with parents and an older sister. We'd always fight and argue to the point where she'd throw things at me and yell. She'd said so many times _'I wear, Baekhyun, I'm going to kill you with my own two hands'_..."

The brunet recollected, looking down.

"That's where the irony lies. I ended up killing her with my own two hands." Pearls of tears glistered in the corners of Baekhyun's eyes. "That wasn't my sister anymore.. It was a monster that murdered my parents. Gives me pangs of conscience every time."

Chanyeol was lost for words. The thoughts of his own older sister, Yoora, evaded his mind and panic started to arouse from the pit of his stomach.

"I'm such a piece of shit." He coughed out when suddenly tears lit up his dark hues and a hysterical laughter rumbled inside his lungs. "A selfish piece of shit."

"Take the s out and you're just elfish." Baekhyun joked, fiddling with Chanyeol's ear once more.

"Not again." Chanyeol cracked a smile as he swiped the sleeve of his shirt over his stinging eyes.

The droopy-eyed male was satisfied to have successfully changed the mood. Whatever story sprawled behind those words, Baekhyun didn't want to know yet.

He gazed at Chanyeol dreamily, finding everything in front of his eyes interesting. He wanted to explore him more, to strip him to the core and beyond, just to find out that he was looking in a mirror.

"So, let's try again. I'm Byun Baekhyun, I'm twenty four, I like engineering and anything computer-related. I also have a shotgun, beware." The brunet said in a strong voice, raising the gun in a comic manner.

The tall male slowly bobbed his head up and down, licking his lips. His hands laid close to his hips, making him duck his head as if in embarrassment.

"Park Chanyeol. Twenty two. I like to rap and play the guitar... And I have a scar on my ass."

Baekhyun tried to restrain his grin but failed miserably. His hands darted to cover his mouth as his eyes squinted and he gently started to sway from left to right.

Chanyeol stuck his tongue out, having a short fit of laughter.

"That's all I've got man." 

Baekhyun put himself together again in a blink of an eye, growing worryingly deadpan out of a sudden. He gave Chanyeol one last dreamy look before his gaze slipped down to his crimson lips.

They looked tremendously warm, they looked _alive_ and so tempting.

"Can I have a kiss?" Baekhyun asked, tilting his head to the side.

Chanyeol winced, gouging his eyes out.

"I-I'm sorry, did I catch that right?" He started to blink rapidly as his widened orbs traveled across the room, averting another's. His head ducked even lower and he swallowed heavily, parting his lips as in a mumble.

"Yeah, I asked if I could get a kiss. Can I?" Baekhyun's lashes fluttered innocently. "I might change my mind if you keep making a big deal out of it."

"Uh.. No, I mean.. I don't mind. It's nothing.. No big deal, right. Just a kiss." Chanyeol blabbered on, pooling enough courage to turn his head to Baekhyun as a toothy, open-mouthed smile found its way to his lips.

The brunet smirked, inching closer. Chanyeol was sure he had let out a tiny squeak when their breaths collided and was truly appreciative that Baekhyun chose to make no remark upon that.

Their lips touched and lingered for a few seconds before the older boy deepened the kiss without Chanyeol's consent. He confidently captured the tall man's lower lip in between his own and sucked on it ever so gently.

Chanyeol tried to fix the lack of any physical contact except for the kiss whatsoever. He held his hand out, about to lay it flat on Baekhyun's neck when the brunet slapped it away, breaking the kiss shortly after.

He didn't look flustered, only pleased with his own attainment as he bounded off the counter top and walked away.

"Thanks. Have a good night." He said nonchalantly, not even stealing another glance at a man he was so mesmerised by only a minute ago.

Chanyeol watched his back disappear into the dark corridor, still astounded by the bluntness of their encounter. He ran his hand through his thick hair, his jaw slowly hanging open.

"What the fuck just happened.."

~~

A sheet of gloom rolled over the sky as a bundle of menacing, grey clouds hollered. Lightning flashed across the inky dome above and it was matter of only a few minutes before a pouring rain would kick off.

Suho's team was spread across the lobby. Some snoring away in the sleeping bags provided by Yixing, some (those who were too big for the sleeping bags) curled into the blankets on the mattresses.

Yixing's team was sleeping in their usual room, on their handmade beds.

Suho tiptoed across the lobby, trying to stop the floor from creaking too much. He shuddered at every other bolt of lightning flashing in the window, making it twice as challenging for himself to move.

Once he reached Minseok's sleeping bag, he crouched and carefully shook him awake.

"Hyung, we need to get out of here." Suho whispered, but soon realized that Minseok was treating him like a dream.

The older boy hummed at him softly and nodded before dropping his heavy, drowsy head back onto the padded bag.

Suho sighed tiredly and once again looked outside. There were a few walkers down the road, bunched up in someone's fenced yard, aside from that, the coast seemed clean.

"Come on, Junmyeon, you're their guardian." Suho muttered under his breath, trying to convince himself that his decisions were solidary.

At last, he managed to wake Minseok up and the two carefully searched the place. They found their backpacks in the back of the shop, in one of the rooms behind metal doors.

"Why weren't these locked? I thought they were real serious with keeping us empty-handed and away from the weaponry." Suho wondered in a low tone, scanning the shelves full of ammunition surrounding them.

"They weren't locked because they don't have the keys." Minseok explained, starting to delve in his pocket.

"What?" Suho's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets as his hyung fished a small set of keys out of his pocket.

"Luhan took it, said it was for an unexpected occasion, and here we are now." Minseok explained. "We didn't just take the keys, though." He whispered, heading for another room that they had checked and found to be locked.

He fiddled the key in the lock, turning the handle once he heard the desired click. Slowly pushing the door open, Minseok revealed dozens of bagfuls of the best guns, blades, ammunition, gunpowder and even medical supplies that he and Luhan had looted in the shop.

"We couldn't carry all of this for obvious reasons. There were three of us and we had no car, but we kept it here knowing that this place wouldn't be our haven for long."

"Minseok hyung, I can barely believe my eyes." Suho wanted to cry tears of joy. He itched to wake the others and make an escape without having to share any of their food or arm with Yixing's team, but he was even more relieved that they'd be leaving without obviously stealing what Yixing claimed to be his.

Gas was another problem, but Suho knew they could easily run to the nearest station and snatch a couple of gallons. Getting out of the weapon shop was his first priority.

"Hyungs?" The two almost jumped upon registering the presence of the third party.

They turned around simultaneously, looking at their young friend with dreadful, pallid faces.

Trouble was written all over Chanyeol's expression as he messed with the hair on the crown on his head, looking at the bags with certain discomfort and even shame.

"I thought you had buried the key with Luhan hyung." He uttered in a cracking voice. "You're going to escape without Yixing's team, that's what you're planning?"

Minseok's heart clenched excruciatingly upon his boyfriend's name being used so carelessly. He bowed his head low, stretching his mouth into a line.

"Chanyeol, I talked to Yixing and I've concluded that we can't afford to comply with his terms and conditions. We need to get our supplies back and leave." Suho whispered in a pleading voice, praying to heavens that Chanyeol was't going to make any objections.

"But what about them?"

"That has never been our concern and will continue not to be." Minseok told the youngster, throwing two straps over his shoulder and reaching for another.

"You are going to leave them for dead here? And I'm not talking about the food. We can see that every single day it's getting worse out here. Zombies start spreading out from the center and this place will be crammed very soon. These guys are not that inhumane military, they let us in their shelter, they treated Suho hyung's wound, they volunteered to teach Minseok hyung to shoot, they've been nothing but kind to us. Can you do this to nice people?!" Chanyeol lectured a little louder than intended, pouring his frustrations out.

"You know who else are nice people who deserve to survive? Us. And if your leader says we have to leave them behind, you understand that it's best for the group." Minseok backed Suho up and the pale leader was sincerely grateful for the support, although Chanyeol wasn't going to give up.

"Think about it, they wouldn't be here if they had a vehicle, but they would definitely have a vehicle if any of them could drive. They can't escape like we do, they'll die if we just leave them here, with or without our food." Chanyeol's troubled mien never eased, never faded as his chest rose and fell, growing anxious from having to stand against his friends.

"Chanyeol, I know you like Baekhyun, but---"

"Don't make it about him, hyung, I'm not some biased bastard. I know you can see the whole picture, Suho hyung, please, I refuse to betray them like this."

Chanyeol's sharp words slashed right through Suho's conscience, sending him on a guilt trip. Betrayal was the word he wished to hear the least and the word that was the most suitable to call their decision at the same time. Minseok seemed to be less affected by it, thus he felt the need to step in again.

"We're not heroes, Chanyeol, it's not our responsibility to save everyone." Minseok's morose eyes dawned on the tall man. "Let's get going."

They clearly couldn't afford an expansion to the group. They had neither enough food, nor space in their caravan. Suho, however, was more afraid of erasing the line between their people, for there was bound to start an argument over the leadership and he wasn't confident he could win.

"Come on, hyungs, I can't do this to them, I can't do this to Baekhyun." Chanyeol was starting to sob as he clutched the folds on Suho's shirt, hanging his head low before locking their eyes together again. "Let's just stay for now or leave altogether, we'll get one more car and I'll drive them, we can make it work." He whined, tugging the worn out fabric on Suho's chest.

"Chanyeol, I'm sorry." Suho whispered in a dolorous tone, pulling the younger boy's hands off of his shirt.

"Let's go, we need Minho to get more bags." He shoved Chanyeol's shoulder as he walked past him, keeping head down.

In the end of the corridor there stood a shadow. And if it weren't for the smaller posture, Suho would have never guessed that it wasn't any of his remaining teammates.

"Leaving already?" Yixing's voice boomed in Suho's eardrums, making his heart sink.

"I'm sorry it has to be like this. We're leaving some of this bags here for you, but we're taking back everything we came with." Suho said, fearing that there's a gun in Yixing's hand that he's yet to see.

"Except for your dignity." Yixing sounded surprisingly calm as he took a couple of steps forward, entering the dim light that illuminated the whole corridor from afar. "I'm used to this by now. Used to being let down."

"Can I ask, what is your plan?" Suho quizzed, ignoring the burning feeling in the back of his neck.

"Obviously, I'm staying. This shop has a special place in my heart. This is where my life lost meaning about a year ago and this is where my life shall end too." Yixing said, snorting a laugh as he crossed his arms over his chest.

Suho was bewildered by the apathy and over the top pessimism in both Yixing's tone and expression, but he couldn't bring himself to ask any more questions.

"Die here? Is that what you want?" Chanyeol asked indignantly, arching his eyebrows in a scolding manner. "What about Baekhyun and Chen? They rely on you!"

"Well, we'll all die sometime, they're aware. We aren't like you, people. There is nothing connecting the three of us except for this shared tragedy. We never chose to rely on each other, we had to."

"They chose you as the leader, they put you in charge, so they entrusted their lives to you." The tall boy retorted, trying hard not to yell in Yixing's face.

"Lives that are doomed. I'd probably have shot myself by now if it hadn't been for these guys, so don't try to accuse me of anything. I'm just doing what I can for them."

"You just fucking gave up on them and yourself and are now waiting for death! That's what you said!" Chanyeol argued once again and Minseok had to shush and stop him from punching Yixing in the face.

"I might not care too much but, those kids love living. They're growing stronger every day to continue to defend themselves and live another day, but you'd rather take that away because it's easier? You're one bullshit of a leader, Yixing." Minseok could no longer hold his own feelings back, being deeply infuriated by the selfishness of the guy.

"They forced this responsibility upon me. I was nothing but a tattoo artist who happened to have a lot of acquaintances among the mafia. My customers were mostly those filthy gangsters and criminals. They called me their friend, treated me fairly, even stood up for me in fights, just to frame me later and set me up against cops and other gangs. I've learned that I can't completely trust everyone the hard way. They trashed my home, shattered everything I owned to slivers, got me fired and nearly got me imprisoned. In this very gun shop they beat up my fiance until there was nothing but a pool of blood and pulp left of him. Since then I've never once thought that this stinky life is worth living, but here I am, for some fucking reason." Yixing inhaled painfully, kicking the air as his fists shook.

"So go and don't think of us. I won't be affected in any way."

At this rate, Minseok was in a shutdown. His thoughts clotted in a dissonance and yet another vertigo twinged his head.

"I do know how it feels to be stabbed in the back by someone you trust, believe me I know better than anyone." Suho looked the tattooed man in the eye. "My childhood friend of 25 years stole our car and left us hanging in the previous shelter with no weapons and no means of transportation. 25 years of my life I had spent beside that man, grew up with him, knew his family, his friends, studied in the same school and all for granted. But in order to protect my friends I had to shove this issue aside, I had to abandon caring about that for the sake of people who 'forced this responsibility upon me'. Weather we like it or not, there's no more living for yourself in the new world, there's only surviving for everyone's sake. If you refuse to abide by the new rules of survival, I'm going to take those two kids with me and give them another day to be alive. You can stay or you can come with us and find new reasons to live." Suho declared, outstretching his hand for Yixing to take it.

The tattooed male motionlessly stood for a while, his eyes aimlessly wandering from left to right, making the time around them freeze and stretch agonisingly. He felt like his heartstrings were plucked like the guitar, slowly and unbearably painfully. He needed time but Suho couldn't give him much.

Chanyeol stared in uttermost disbelief, forming a large, toothy grin on his face. Although his ego was a little hurt due to the fact that his desperate pleas did nothing to change Suho's mind, he assured himself it was worth swallowing up his pride, for Suho himself proclaimed that he was taking Baekhyun and Chen with them.

"That's my leader!" Chanyeol enthused, pumping his fist in the air excitedly. "I'll get the others!" He stormed past the two males in charge, leaving a completely beaten to the ground Minseok stand on his own, accompanied by nothing but misery and an excruciating wave of memories soaking him to the bone.


	4. If I stay it won't be long till I'm burning on the inside

A short, bushy-eyebrowed man never lost peace of mind as the larger man pushed his shoulder blade with the tip of his rifle. He remained stay put only because a certain _he_ was right in his sight.

"Move." The larger man pushed him again, making a hiss slip through the bushy-eyebrowed man's lips.

He wished his partner was as calm and collected as he was, but a part of him had long concluded that he was going to get punched in the face for his stubbornness and his tanned partner was going to outburst with wrath.

"Don't you fucking touch him!" The sun-kissed man groaned, the side of his face pressed against the cold hood of a land rover, wrists held on his back. His nose was bleeding severely as one of his eyes struggled to keep open because of the swelling.

"It's okay, Jongin." The small man assured his partner, moving towards the rover with his arms raised in surrender.

In a blink of an eye, his head was slammed against the hood of the car too and he grunted in agony, slipping off of it with partly lidded eyes.

"I told you not to touch him!" Jongin exclaimed, helplessly flailing under the weight of the person holding him down.

"What's that? You want it?" The same man that knocked the bushy-eyebrowed boy down grabbed his semi-unconscious body by the collar and stood him up on his feet.

"Then, fetch!" The big man laughed, hurling the small, defenseless body off the road.

"Kyungsoo!!" Jongin screamed on top of his lungs, watching his friend's limp body roll down the steep slope and stop halfway to the river bank.

"Aren't we supposed to bring that kid back?" The man holding Jongin wondered, trying to get a better look of what happened to Kyungsoo after rolling down the hill.

"No, it's the arrhythmic one, got heaps of other health problems, he'd go to trash anyway."

"Then just shoot him, might as well?" The man spoke again, looking at Kyungsoo's body in utter disgust.

The weak were to fall and if you didn't wipe them out of your way, they'd drag you down with them.

"Don't kill him! Let him go! He can't fight!" Jongin kept flapping in fruitless attempts to break free, but in a second, he was taken out by a strange liquid that was inserted in his neck through a needle.

As the syringe was emptied into his blood, Jongin's pupils faded into the dark hue of his eyes, his head and limbs loosened and hung ungraciously.

"Key! Why the fuck did you do that?"

"He might be an errored military dog, but he's still as strong as the rest of them. Holding him down was becoming tedious." Key shrugged, twirling the syringe around his finger.

"What do we do with them?" The large man quizzed, aiming his rifle at Kyungsoo.

"I haven't received a direct order. I have no right to kill Jonghyun's trainee, if I still want to get a promotion, that is." Key grumbled through gritted teeth, shoving Jongin's passed-out vessel off of his car. He then got a handkerchief out of the pocket of his safety jacket and wiped the red trail of his nosebleed away.

"Walkers will get them sooner than Kai wakes up." His giant partner thought aloud, scratching his head.

"Did you hear that shrimp? He called Kai by his given name." Key scoffed, once again scanning the bodies with a disgruntled look present on his face.

"That's the first case I know of besides Taemin when the dogs remember their given name."

"Don't forget that it was Jonghyun who experimented with Taemin to see if he would be bound to his past more because they let him keep his name. In the end that idiot's guinea pig Taeminnie turned out to be better than half our troops, meanwhile Kai, who everyone had high expectations for, turned out to be 'errored'. No wonder they disposed of Jonghyun, I don't think any sergeant  had ever fucked up as much as he has." Key spat out, hiding the syringe away into his snazzy leather case before he tossed it into the back of his car and crawled inside.

"You're just salty you weren't promoted. Kai is Jonghyun's trainee, used to be, he has all the legal right to kill him, but I bet you won't even give him the coordinates."

"One more word and I'll prick you with the same needle. I already sent him everything. He'll locate him if he cares enough." With that said, Key and his partner hit the road, leaving Kyungsoo and Jongin out as a fresh snack for the infected that started to swarm around the area.

As soon as the roar of the engine faded into the distance, Kyungsoo rolled over onto his back, wailing in pain. He pooled the strength to stand up and start creeping and slithering up the hill, for his legs were shabby from the fall and his temple started to bleed, leaving him lightheaded.

"Oh no, oh no.. Not again.." He cussed under his breath, dragging his feet up the slope again and again, as he reached the road, he slipped and fell jaw first onto the cement.

Ignoring the hellish pain cutting through his whole skull, he limped over to the sun-kissed boy and scanned his neck.

There was a large, purple bruise growing around countless of tiny pricks bunched up in one little spot on his neck. That's where they used to inject him with those awful hormones and boosters.

Kyungsoo had a matching spot on the neck, but it was barely bruised, especially compared to Jongin's. He had been held as a military dog no longer than two months, right after the infection had spread across the island and the government started to grab every other person off the streets, forcing them into the intense, brutal training ordinary people had never been ready for. All because the island had been refused to receive any help from the outside world.

They said it was for a brighter future, they said it was for their own good. But they never said it would be over once the military found you 'errored'.

The errored were the chronically ill, disabled ...and those who showed traits of a human such as mercy, fear, love and other emotions a soldier would be better off without.

Jongin had been a military dog in training since he was four. He was a part of special, the most cruel program the government had to offer yet. They took children right out of the orphanage, regardless of their age or gender.

It was sergeant (at the time) Jonghyun's brand new project to create war machines, cold soldiers meant to fight and not live. All the children in the project were given code names, trained to forget their past and any relationships.

There were two trainees who got an exceeding amount of attention and patronizing - a breathtaking rose and a toxic oleander, as Key loved to refer to them.

Kai and Taemin - Jonghyun's favorite orphans. Whilst both of them stood out appearance-wise, one was undeniably better than the other. Kai was strong and a fast learner, Taemin was sickly skinny and slow to pick things up. Jonghyun predicted from the start that Taemin would be a failure, that's why he became a perfect opportunity to play with the children's minds.

What would grow out of a cold killer who remembered his name, his origin, his friends?

Turns out, a military dog better than Kai could ever be.

The project failed miserably, for only a few of the trainees made it through the rough and intensive training program alive.

But  despite countless of failures before the project, it was Kai who got Jonghyun lowered back to being a lance corporal.

~~

"The world outside is turning upside down as we speak, Kyungsoo. Or wait, what did they call you?"

Kyungsoo couldn't fight the lethargy reigning in his bones. He tugged on his shirt where there was embroidered his new code name. The thread said in blue over white 'D.O' and a smaller 'D5' under it.

"I thought they didn't bother to be very creative with these, but look, yours reads D.O D Oh. (The word for five in Korean is 오 = oh)" The man laughed, noticing Kyungsoo's head sway from right to left slowly, like he was hypnotized.

He was sitting in the corner of the barred room, his knees were pressed to his chest and a there was a pistol lying in the far end of the room, forgotten.

He could still see their jaws cluttering shut greedily. They weren't giving up on trying to snatch the boy with their rotting hands, but the chain around their neck wouldn't allow them to come anywhere near his reach.

But now they were dead. Wallowing on the floor with neat bullet holes in their heads and a splattered trail of blood on the plain wall behind them.

"Did they give you an Ambien shot?" The man wondered, crouching down to feel the smaller man's skin.

He stuck his hand through the iron bars separating them and touched the back of Kyungsoo's neck.

"Why are you so talkative?" The man with the bushy eyebrows and thick lips forced in a small voice, coughing as his head bowed lower and shoulders started to shake.

"None of them is talkative. They never talk to me. You've been here since you were a kid, they all know you and they praise you, and you smile when they do, you thank them and then you wander in high spirits. They don't do that, only you do." Kyungsoo whispered, coughing in between his sentences as tears pooled in the pit of his throat.

The sun-kissed man standing behind him couldn't make out some of the words, but he had a perfect understanding of what he was getting at.

He leaned in, getting as close to Kyungsoo's nape as the bars allowed and spoke as quietly as he could manage.

"It's because no matter what, they can't replace Jongin with Kai. My heart pumps blood through my veins the same as before, my blood is polluted and full of their nasty boosters the same as before, but since you've been brought here, one thing has changed, Kyungsoo. There appeared room for something in this heart which they claimed to have made unreachable." Jongin couldn't help smiling to himself as he laid his palm flat on his chest where the heart was, feeling his pulse accelerate.

"That was so cheesy, I'm sorry, I almost made myself puke. The point is that, I realized they failed." Jongin continued, his eyes madly traveling from left to right to make sure nobody else could hear him.

"I am a human, Kyungsoo, just like you."

"Just like me?" Kyungsoo raised his head as a forced laughter rumbled in his lungs. He carefully turned around, revealing his pained, swollen from all the crying face.

Jongin shuddered, yanking his head away from the iron bars. His lips formed a straight line as his dark oculars locked with Kyungsoo's.

"They drained all the human away from me, Jongin." Kyungsoo wept silently, shrinking every time he coughed into his fist. The smell of the rotting flesh was unbearable.

"These were.. these were my parents." He stuttered as he rushed to turn his back upon Jongin and threw up.

That excruciating mien sank into the bottom of Jongin's heart, throwing him off the track that the military taught him to walk.

After seeing the one he loved suffer through this, Jongin knew it was time to leave.

~~

Kyungsoo's hands grasped at the tanned boy's shoulders. He tried to drape him over his back, but Jongin was too tall and heavy for him. In the end, he somehow managed to drag his partner off the road and into the woods. He wasn't sure where he was going or why, but there was no doubt that Jonghyun would soon come looking for Jongin.

Kyungsoo's limbs begged him to take a break, his heart beat so fast that it seemed like it was going to burst out of the cage of his ribs. He stopped and put Jongin by the tree, feeling his own chest. He breathed in and out slowly until all he could hear was a low clicking sound under his left collarbone.

He glanced at Jongin's tranquil face, still wondering what to do until he'd wake up.

The liquid Key injected in him was a common drug used on misbehaving military dogs. They called it an Ambien shot, although it did more to 'dogs' than just put them to sleep. It dulled their senses and took away most of their strength until the drug would have worn off completely.

Kyungsoo crouched down and searched Jongin for any weapons. Key took his twin pistols away, but didn't bother to check for any other weaponry per usual.

A sigh of relief slipped through his lips as he pulled a short-bladed knife out of Jongin's pocket. It wasn't much, but Kyungsoo was good with blades, mainly because he loved to cook as a hobby. He remembered having to impale a walker's head during their training and he didn't find sticking a knife in their brain through the socket of the eye more difficult than slicing a raw sweet potato.

Having barely let his aching muscles relax, Kyungsoo picked Jongin back up and resumed limping aimlessly into the woods. He struggled to push his way through the thick, dark forest, unsure where he was going, leaving hope further and further behind with a new step.

Kyungsoo wasn't expecting much when he saw a hut in the distance. It could have been crammed with zombies for all he knew, but there were no options to choose from.

"Come on, just a little more.." Kyungsoo kept on muttering words of encouragement under his breath. He knew he had pushed his body way off limits: his chest ached, lungs burned, legs felt like they were about to detach from the rest of his body and walk away on their own.

He needed a break, needed it so desperately, but the infected were all around him, stepping on his heels. He couldn't see them, but he could hear them perfectly. Their clumsy, disoriented steps, crunching of the leaves and twigs under their feet.

He had to fiddle with the lock for a short while before he realized there was no way he was opening it. He let Jongin slide off of his shoulder and fall to the side as he leaned on the door and mewled into the wooden surface, dragging his fingernails down.

"Open.. Why won't you open.." He gritted his teeth, taking a step back.

Kept on feet by willpower only, Kyungsoo banged his shoulder into the door. There was a thud and there was a creak. Surprisingly, it was none of Kyungsoo's bones but the door which mysteriously swung open.

Thinking that it was a sudden outbreak of the military boosters giving him strength, Kyungsoo didn't lose the momentum. He threw Jongin's arm over his shoulder and hauled him inside the hut.

The interior was dim, but not pitch black. Someone must have been there earlier. Kyungsoo shut the door behind himself and hurriedly pushed a nearby drawer to block it.

Once the door had been barricaded, he fell to the ground, Jongin landing right next to him. He coughed heavily as he swept his sleeve over his forehead. He had been sweating buckets, his throat felt dry and crispy.

Out of the blue, he heard rapid footsteps closing in. Angered shouts and threats rang in the air along with the sound of bullets jolting inside a half empty magazine.

Kyungsoo was so familiar with that sound. It had been his alarm clock for the past two months.

The yelling started to sound distant, like Kyungsoo was lying on the bottom of the ocean. His vision blurred and reddened from his bleeding wound, a few seconds more and and he passed out.

He woke up feeling weaker than before, but instead of the ache in his back and legs, there was a sharp ache cutting through his wrists.

"What is that wound?! Is it a bite?! Answer!" The same voice from before called, just as angered but with a tint of fright to it. 

Kyungsoo's head was spinning, the voice still came muffled through his ears.

"Wa...wat..er." He uttered, but his voice was so hushed that the other person didn't understand him.

"Were you bitten?!" He repeated. This time Kyungsoo heard everything, but his throat would make no noise to respond.

"I'm going to shoot you unless you reply!" The shouts outgrew into hysterical screams and the gun shook harder.

"No.. Hit.."

"What?!"

"Water.."

~~

The hut belonged to Zitao, or was occupied by Zitao, a man who was not so good at speaking Korean. He and Kyungsoo had quite some misunderstanding going on before he was finally given some water and and had his hands untied.

"Please untie him too.." Kyungsoo requested in a small voice, glancing at a peacefully sleeping Jongin.

"He's a military dog. I'm not going to free him."

"He's my friend." Kyungsoo objected, giving Zitao a cross look.

"He's a military dog! Do you know what the military did?!" Zitao switched to speaking Mandarin without his own acknowledgement, but thankfully Kyungsoo didn't need to be fluent to know what military had done.

They were behind the failed evacuation plans. They were the ones who shut the gates in people's faces because the rescue boats were getting overcrowded. They were the ones who opened fire instead of handling the arousing panic properly and now they were the ones clearing the island out.

"He's not like them.. He's an errored.. And so am I." Kyungsoo confessed, bowing his head low.

"You're one of them?!" Zitao snatched his gun again, pointing it at Kyungsoo. His hands shook and teeth unsheathed, fury swam through his sharp eyes.

"They forced me into this.. But they'd have killed me if it wasn't for him. He saved my life and now he's wanted by the military." Kyungsoo stated, drawing a mouthful of air as he once again glanced at his unconscious partner.

Zitao hushed, putting the gun down as a pitiful expression rolled over his face.

"How long has it been since we got here?" Kyungsoo quizzed, approaching the bed that Jongin was lying on.

"Seven, maybe eight hours."

The smaller  man's Adam's apple shook as he gulped, parting his lips to let his breath come out in a stutter. He laid his forehead on Jongin's chest, trying to listen to his heartbeat.

"He was supposed to wake up in an hour or two after the Ambien shot." He uttered in a trembling voice, trepidation taking over his mind.

He started to unstrap Jongin's safety jacket and once he got it out of the way, he placed his palms flat on his chest and started to push.

"Jongin.. Wake up.. Wake up.." He cried, slowly abandoning the futile attempts.

Zitao couldn't bare watching the scene, he pinned his eyes elsewhere and they landed on the window right above the bed Jongin had occupied.

His orbs widened in fear. He darted to the lamp in the back of the hut and turned it off, then rushed over to Kyungsoo and dragged him down to the floor, holding a finger over his mouth.

"Qui-qu-quiet!" He nearly yelled, causing the smaller man to squint his eyes.

"Okay.." Kyungsoo's voice died down, but Zitao was far from calm.

He shook violently and winced upon every other crunch and growl outside of the window. 

"Oh my god oh my god oh god." He whispered apprehensively, clutching the strands of his black hair.

Kyungsoo couldn't have him panicking so loudly, so he used his own hand to muffle the other man's cries, but once there was no sound hanging in the air except for their breathing, Zitao heard something ticking ever so quietly and rhythmically.

Zitao's eyes fluttered open again as he started to bob his head from left to right, up and down, searching for something.

"Wh-what is that sound?!" He exclaimed, jumping up. "There' a bomb in here?!" He yelled on top of his lungs, leaving Kyungsoo no choice but to throw him down to the floor again.

"What are you talking about?! What bomb could possibly be in here?" Kyungsoo said in a whisper, using all his remaining strength to hold Zitao in place.

"There's something ticking and I have watched enough movies to know that bombs tick!"

"It's just my pacemaker.." Kyungsoo realized, seizing a fold on the left side of his chest.

"Your what?" Zitao calmed down visibly, his face shining with cold sweat.

"Artificial pacemaker. It's for my arrhythmia. You really need to learn to stay calm, it's annoying." Kyungsoo rolled his eyes, silently thanking the skies that Zitao's excessive screaming didn't bring walkers banging on the shabby walls of the hut.

The bed creaked. Jongin started to toss, agonized groans escaped his throat as his body failed to stretch because of the tied wrists limiting his movements.

"He's turning into a zombie!" Zitao exclaimed, darting away from the bed with his gun ready to shoot.

"Stop! He hasn't been touched by any infected! He's waking up!" Kyungsoo protested, shielding his partner with his petite body.

"Jongin?" He called, trying his luck with undoing the complicated knot.

"Kyungsoo~" Jongin's voice was rusty from the long doze, his lips curled upwards faintly. His body loosened, giving up on trying to move.

"Goodness, Jongin, I thought you weren't going to wake up." Kyungsoo embraced him by the waist, burying his forehead in the crook of his neck.

"Ah, I still can't move my arms.." Jongin whined, letting his head fall onto the mattress.

Zitao scowled and swiftly moved over to the bed to cut the rope. He learned to make those knots back in boy scout days, but never had any luck undoing them.

Jongin's arms instinctively wrapped Kyungsoo's back and his chin raised to rest on his head.

"You know, I haven't slept this well since I was four." Jongin smiled, sitting up against the backrest of the bed. He was still dazed, either because of the Ambien shot's long-lasting effect or the long sleep.

His weakened state equally affected both his mind and his body, that's why he didn't bother to check their surroundings and didn't fully recognize the current situation.

"Your sleeping habits nearly got me a heart attack." Kyungsoo grumbled, adjusting his pose on the bed to give Jongin a kiss on the mouth.

He caressed the sun-kissed neck, running his thumb over the bruise in a soothing motion as he pressed his lips against Jongin's.

Discomfort rang in Zitao's spine, bringing an uncertain grimace to his face. He spun on his heel, not wishing to see any more of the romantic scene occurring in front of his eyes.

He coughed into his fist audibly to draw attention of the two.

"So... You've both been through military training?"

"Who are you?" Jongin's muscles stiffened as he shot Zitao a glare.

Some of his senses started to sharpen again and he could feel the soreness in his wrists then.

"He's Zitao, we're in his hut right now." Kyungsoo spoke, holding Jongin's hand.

The black-haired man turned around, nodding at Jongin.

"Key gave our previous coordinates to Jonghyun, so I fled with you." Kyungsoo explained, playing with the tanned man's fingers.

Only then did Jongin remember what had happened before he passed out.

"Shit, right, Key, that son of a... Are you hurt? Let me see." He felt his boyfriend's temple with his thumb. The wound had been rinsed and didn't look like it needed any stitching.

"I've been worse." Kyungsoo forced a smile, looking at the taller boy through his lashes. "We have better worried about Jonghyun."

"He's got more interesting things to do than chase me." Jongin scoffed, brushing the worries aside, but Kyungsoo wasn't buying it.

He grabbed him by the face and gave it a weak shake.

"You rebelled against the military and got him reduced in rank, Jongin, he has quite something to avenge you for."

Zitao coughed into his fist _again_.

"There's a small horse racing venue outside of this forest." He started, pinning a large map of the island off the wall.

"That area has least population, which means least zombies, the venue is well protected. If we clean it out it's all ours." He laid the map on Kyungsoo's lap, smiling smugly.

"I'm sorry but we're not willing to cooperate. We've got our own plans." Jongin turned him down before Kyungsoo had a say.

The short man looked at Zitao and shrugged with an apologetic expression.

"Wait wait wait, no, you can't refuse like that." Zitao shook his head in disbelief, astounded by the vague response.

"I saved your lives, basically." He reasoned, gesturing to the barricaded door of the hut.

"You tied us down and threatened to shoot, then you almost made us an easy target for the walkers. You're more of a danger than we've ever come across." Kyungsoo glared, willing to cross the line if it guaranteed him and Jongin solitude.

From the moment they broke out of the military camp, they swore to only look out for each other and never put themselves in danger for someone else's sake.

"Oh, that sounds great to just continue about your way with no guns." Zitao knitted his eyebrows as a bitter smile curled on his lips.

"I have the weaponry, you have the skills. Help me clear it out and I'll give you everything you may need to defend yourselves, then you're free to do whatever you want." Zitao started to grow anxious, but he had hit the target right in the bull's eye.

Kyungsoo and Jongin exchanged looks, both evidently interested in the deal.

"We could go back to town, find weapons.." Jongin suggested almost in a whisper, keeping his eyes on Kyungsoo.

"And run into Jonghyun completely defenseless? We might as well just jump into the jaws of the first walker to pass us by." The bushy-eyebrowed man contemplated, narrowing his eyes crossly.

"Exactly." Zitao nodded eagerly, holding his chin as his lashes clapped repeatedly.

"Whatever you think is best for us." Jongin gave up, curving his lips inwards as a small smile of agreement twinkled on his face.

"You'll be under the effects of Ambien shot for a short while, will you be okay?" Kyungsoo wondered, giving his hand a gentle squeeze.

"Next time you doubt me, I'll make you apologize." The tanned male chuckled briefly, placing another peck on Kyungsoo's lips.

"Can you not?" Zitao gave up on his efforts to be polite and let the cringe take over his face.

~~

"Oh wow, he's good." Zitao praised, having crossed his arms over his chest as he watched the sun-kissed man taking down one infected after another.

"He's excellent." Kyungsoo smiled proudly, almost jogging behind Jongin to keep the pace up with him.

"Which brings me to think.. Why are you doing nothing?" The black-haired man shot him a questioning look.

"He's been in training since he was a toddler, I've been in training for two months." Kyungsoo clarified, shrugging. The same smile present on his face. "Plus I can't see shit because of my astigmatism."

Jongin glanced at him over his shoulder, giving him a small grin.

"I'm your eyes." He announced loudly, firing yet another bullet through the revolver in his right hand.

"That is, until we find you a pair of glasses."

"The venue seems smaller than I've seen on TV." Kyungsoo pondered aloud, looking around.

"You've probably seen the ones in Tokyo. This venue isn't even that well known, it was built just for the sake of the islanders' entertainment."

"Compared to what I've seen, this is really small. But it's still huge.. We might not have enough bullets to wipe them all out."

"Good call Kyungdude. We shall use crowbars from now on." Zitao clicked his fingers, comprehending that they really hadn't been very rich on ammunition.

"That will take us years. And I really don't feel like dedicating that much time to you, to be honest." Jongin fired out shamelessly.

"We have a deal." Zitao reminded, stumbling over a rotting body of a walker.

"I know and I'm not going anywhere before we finish." Jongin assured sternly, feeling annoyed by the constant need of Zitao to nag.

"Jongin," Kyungsoo called, picking up a quicker pace to tap him on the shoulder. "He's right. We shouldn't use guns anymore. If Jonghyun's troops are anywhere near, they're going to know."

Immediately, Jongin put his pistol and a revolver back into the holsters strapped to his belt. With a long sigh, he stopped on his tracks and turned around, facing the two of his companions.

"There are some houses outside. Good loot, if anything. Most of the backyards have fruit or vegetable gardens. Some keep cattle and horses. Whatever animal hasn't starved to death yet is a winner." Jongin blabbered with a childish joy. Kyungsoo loved how his cheekbones raised and eyes wrinkled whenever he wore a genuine smile, the smile that military tried to make him forget.

Stunned by the gorgeous man in front of his eyes, Kyungsoo discarded the sense of whatever his boyfriend had just said.

"Yeah, one can build a decent life here." Zitao agreed.

"Build what?" Kyungsoo's thoughts scattered all over the place.

"A decent life." Jongin repeated after the black-haired man, grabbing Kyungsoo by the shoulders.

"Jongin, what are you talking about?" Every emotion vanished off of Kyungsoo's face, only confusion remained in the hues of his eyes.

"I want a taste of life. I want to do something besides hitting the target with a bullet or a knife. I want to know what it feels like to have a home that I'm welcome in, to have a comfortable bed that I'll be able to sleep in for twelve hours straight." The sun-kissed man talked dreamily.

"I've been waking up to that asshole shaking a gun in my face for the past twenty years, Kyungsoo. For once I get a chance to live."

The bushy-eyebrowed man stood numb, looking at Jongin in disbelief as his head started to shake.

"There's no life anymore, Jongin. There's only survival."

"Take that back." Jongin's smile faded into a scowl as he tightened the hold of Kyungsoo's arms. "I'm with you, in safety and it's all I could ever ask for. Please, don't take this joy away from me."

"There are people out there who want you dead, there are dead out there who want you dead. You can sleep all you want but how will I, knowing that I might wake up to you being dead unless we keep moving?!" Kyungsoo outraged, pushing Jongin's chest.

The taller male tripped and fell. He laid on his back, holding himself up using his elbows.

"Kyungsoo.."

"We've only just found each other. I'm not ready to lose you because you want to play house, alright?!" The infuriated Kyungsoo darted towards the exit of the venue.

"Hold up, Kyungsoo!" Jongin jumped right back up, running after him.

Zitao exhaled in irritation, massaging his temples as he tried to stay put.

"How am I going to live alongside these scandalous lovebirds.."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't be afraid~ love is the way~ shorty you got it (to Ksoo)~ haha I love this chapter :3 hope you do too~ we won't be jumping from one POV to another anytime soon again ^^


	5. A place beyond the sun

"We should wait until the sun is up." Minho said upon looking out of the window.

A heavy rainfall had just toggled, making getting out of the gun shop a challenge.

"Do we have to leave at all?" Baekhyun wondered, a tint of irritation audible in his voice as he rubbed on his itching eyelids.

"Anywhere near the downtown is not safe to stay. You may have all the weaponry in the world but this shop won't stand strong against an army of infected." Suho said nonchalantly, sitting next to Sehun as the youngster browsed through the security cameras of the island.

"I just lost connection to four cameras." The boy informed, shutting the lid of the laptop in defeat.

"They're cutting the power off.. one block at a time or something." Minho sighed wearily, sliding the palms of his hands over his face.

"Didn't Sehun say he only had access to the cameras in the center of the town?" Chanyeol wondered, restlessly strolling around the room.

"I know what you're getting at, but there were a few cameras on the outskirts that we could use, but they're all lost now." Suho bit his lip. They didn't need to see the center of the island to know it had been crammed with infected, but now they had no insight of safer places whatsoever.

Jongdae was sitting on a tall bar chair in the corner of the room, quietly humming a familiar melody whilst assembling a couple of revolvers. It wasn't long until he realized that everyone had stopped talking and his private humming was then in the spotlight.

He raised his chin slowly, seeing the entire room from his seat. There was no one in particular staring at him, but Chanyeol gave him a glance and it was enough to make the atmosphere heavy around him.

With a distracting cough, Jongdae put the revolver on the counter and thought for a long second.

"I've been raised on the western side of the island. Six hours away from the city. Small population, farms, a horse racing venue." A smile crawled to the man's face, his cheekbones rose even higher.

"There shouldn't be many zombies out there." He said as heads started to turn towards him.

"I know where the venue is. It's a really small village." Minseok spoke up, raising his eyebrows.

"We call it a suburb." Jongdae clarified. "We can set off now and be there by the morning."

"Six hours is a lot. Which one of us can drive anyway?" Baekhyun asked, his cheeks turning red with embarrassment.

"Minseok hyung and I drive." Chanyeol exclaimed.

"I can too!" Jongdae enthused but immediately received glares from Yixing and Baekhyun.

"There's a difference between having a licence and being able to drive." Yixing joked.

Jongdae pouted childishly, going back to assembling the guns.

"It's still not the best idea to drive now. Plus we need to get the fuel. We'll head out as soon as the sun is up. Me and Minho will be in charge of bringing the gas, the rest of you will transfer our belongings into the van. Minseok hyung will drive first." Suho commanded.

"I'll help you." Jongdae smiled cunningly, reaching for his sniper rifle laying on the side.

When they were ready to take off, Jongdae held his usual position on the rooftop. The gas station was right in his range of vision and so were the two hyungs.

Suho was short on words for Jongdae's skills. Every time he raised his pistol to shoot, the walker in front of him would collapse with a freshly stamped bullet in its forehead.

"Chen is good." Minho cracked a smile, jogging up to the station.

"Yeah, but whatever awaits us inside is on us." Suho nodded as he pushed the doors open and was immediately thrown down by an infected that burst out of the convenience store.

Minho violently kicked the dead off of the pale man and crushed its skull to pieces.

The two rushed into the store, picked up as many gallons as they could possibly bring back and ran for the caravan which they had left across the avenue.

"Chen, come on down!" Yixing called his younger teammate, waiting for him at the garage door.

They were the last ones to get into the crowded caravan before it hit the road, leaving the dreadful downtown behind.

Yixing kept staring out at the gun shop that was rapidly shrinking in the distance until it turned into a tiny dot.

"Hey, I'm glad you came." Suho nudged the tattooed man in the shoulder, offering a hospitable smile.

"Yeah.." Yixing nodded morosely, clutching something in his hand. "It's not really moving on if there's nothing to move onto, right?" He muttered under his breath, pressing the object he'd been holding against his mouth.

It was a small photograph on which a young man was laughing merrily while putting on the same cowboy hat that Yixing was wearing. A thin, golden halo was hugging his ring finger.

Jongdae was pleased to have claimed the passenger seat and give Minseok directions.

"I found you a revolver, hyung." The younger man remembered, delving in his backpack for the guns he had been assembling back in the shop.

"I don't need a gun, Jongdae yah." Minseok brushed him off, giving the road his whole attention.

"I chose a light one. You'll barely notice it's even there, but it may save your life at some point." Jongdae insisted, laying the revolver over the glove box.

"When we arrive, I'll definitely teach you to shoot where I first learned to shoot too." The high-cheekboned man chanted, excited to go back home.

Minseok wasn't even intending to ask him about his early life and how he learned to wield a gun, but Jongdae never needed an invitation to spill his heart out.

"My dad would take me hunting every now and then. He was a retired cop, that's why he owned almost every kind of a gun. We even had a small shooting range in the cellar." A joyful laughter soared through Chen's lips. He hugged his backpack to his chest and nestled up in his seat.

"What about you, hyung, what did you do?" He pried, blinking his eyes as he leaned his head sideways, watching the street lamps and road signs speeding past them.

"Mh.. Before this whole mess began, I was training as a barista." Minseok responded dryly, not feeling like digging in what had already become the past.

"It's people who serve coffee?" Jongdae asked in a yawn, his words coming out muffled and stretched.

"No, a barista brews coffee." A vexed Minseok explained, furrowing his eyebrows slightly.

"That's so cool. I don't like coffee, though." The younger boy started to nod off into dreamland and Minseok wasn't saddened the least to finally be able to drive in peace.

After almost three hours of driving without rest, Minseok was drained. The downfall hadn't stopped all night and the ash sky swallowed up the weak sunbeams.

Minseok stopped the truck in front of a wide puddle in the side of a breached road.

"Why'd we stop?" Minho poked his head in between the front seats, looking at the road ahead.

"A puddle?" He scoffed and raised a brow, patting Minseok on the shoulder. "We should continue, I'll tell Chanyeol to take the wheel."

"There's a visible damage.. Maybe construction work that hasn't been finished." Minseok concluded, about to alight the vehicle when Minho tugged on the sleeve on his shirt.

"Wait.." The tanned male whispered, ducking his head.

From behind the flipped car on the opposite side of the puddle appeared a walker. It gawkily stepped towards the caravan and once its foot touched the water, it submerged completely with a big splash, leaving ripples on the surface until its head appeared again. The walker extended its arms, grasping the metal wires and bars poking out of the raw edges of the hole.

"See?" Minseok smirked. "How are we gonna get to the other side?"

"Can't we drive around it?" Minho quizzed, watching the walker desperately but futilely trying to get out of the puddle.

"If we go off the road, we'll get stuck in mud and we'll never get the caravan out." Suho's voice rang from behind Minho. The tanned man was caught off guard and jumped, banging his head on the roof of the car.

"Let's go see what we can do."

Everyone got out of the car except for a soundly sleeping Jongdae. They walked around the giant puddle in the pouring rain, looking for a possible salvation.

"It's so cold.." Chanyeol whined, hugging his shoulders. He tried to walk on the small slope on the sides of the road, but slipped as soon as he stepped in the mud.

Baekhyun caught him by the hood and helped him back up.

"Careful there." He gently clapped on the tall boy's shoulder.

"Thanks." Chanyeol said between quickened breaths.

"Any ideas, Sehun?" Suho asked the tall boy who was ambling around the gaping hole in the road.

"Yeah." Sehun nodded, viciously stomping on the drowning zombie's fingers that clung to the road.

"Firstly, we need to push these cars off the road. The hole is wide but not long, which is good. We can use parts of these cars to create a bridge." He said, pointing at the light vehicles scattered across the way.

"Our wheels can fit on the remaining part of the road, so we'll only have to run half the weight over the bridge." Sehun went on, trying to pull the detached door from a flipped car.

"There must have been an accident because of construction works and these cars collided." Baekhyun thought aloud, scanning the ramshackle automobiles.

Minseok was suspiciously quiet throughout the whole investigation. He was carefully watching the drowning zombie nobody cared to take out.

In his mind appeared Luhan. Instead of the humble bite he originally had, there were chunks of flesh taken out of random parts of his body: legs, arms, neck. His eyes were bloodshot and had a lifeless ice texture, his face was pallid and covered in veins. In a flash, he blinked and his skin was then dark grey, peeling away from the maroon flesh underneath.

"No.." Minseok coughed up, tempestuously kicking the walker in the jaw.

He kicked again and again, tearing up as he did. He had completely crushed its jaw when suddenly the walker seized the hem of his trousers and drew him into the puddle.

"Minseok hyung!" Chanyeol shrieked, running up to the hole.

He tried to pull the dead away from his friend, but it had a strong hold on his jacket.

"Watch out!" Baekhyun yelled as he swung a broken road sign in the air and hit the walker in the throat.

The two of them then got Minseok out of the water and put him on the side of the road, trying to make him cough the water he might have swallowed out.

Yixing rushed over to Minseok and induced vomiting by putting pressure on his stomach and hitting his back rhythmically.

The cat-eyed man retched his guts out, coughing heavily.

"He'll be okay." Yixing assured, helping him stand. He dragged him to the side of the road and sat him down.

The others watched Yixing exchange a couple of words with Minseok, but the cat-eyed man only hung his head low and shook it, waving the tattooed male off dismissively.

"What happened to him?" Baekhyun quizzed, concern swimming through his eyes.

Scared for their hyung, everybody seemed to have overlooked the zombie trying to seize the unsuspecting Jongdae through the closed door of the van.

Woken up by the squeaky sounds of fingers dragging down the glass, Jongdae's first intent was to complain. He stretched, letting out a whimper as his eyes fluttered open.

"Minseok hyung?" He mumbled, rubbing the drowsiness away from his face when he turned to the side and saw a walker pressed against the glass.

The high-cheekboned man shuddered, pushing himself away from the window with a mortifyingly loud squeal.

He put himself together in a second, rolled the window down and stuck a knife right in the crown of the walker's head.

"Sorry to have interrupted your makeout session with the glass." He said as he pulled the knife out and wiped it with his handkerchief.

Agitated, he looked out of the windshield to see his friends collectively rolling the abandoned cars out of the way.

"You're still in here? C'mon, help me take the stuff out." Chanyeol rushed inside the caravan, beckoning the clueless Chen to cooperate.

"What's going on?" Jongdae wondered, crawling out of the passenger seat to do as Chanyeol had said.

"We ran into a _deep_ problem, just trying to fix it."

The others rushed to help unload their stuff from the caravan and empty it as much as possible. Chanyeol took the wheel and carefully aligned the car with the improvised bridge while everyone waited outside with their belongings on hand.

Sehun and Minho guided the driver, not allowing the wheels to dodge the metal panels.

As the front of the caravan made it over the bridge, Sehun stopped Chanyeol to adjust the panels so that they wouldn't slip from under the back wheels.

Much to Sehun's concern, the panel bent under the weight of the van, but Chanyeol fled not and pushed the pedal confidently, getting the caravan over the puddle before the wheel had a chance to sink.

"Nicely done!" Suho ran up to Sehun and ruffled the back of his head.

Sehun smiled bashfully, draping his arm over his leader's back as they walked up the vehicle.

~~

Minseok was in no emotional condition to drive, besides, be had been driving for the past three or four hours, so Chanyeol was left in charge.

Everybody was changing out of the soaking wet clothes and Sehun couldn't tear his eyes off of Yixing's tattoos.

There was one which stood out the most. It was a portrait on the left side of his chest, but before Sehun had a chance to ask who that was, Yixing slid a fresh shirt on.

"Whose hoodie am I wearing?" Baekhyun laughed, raising his sweater paws up. If he were to wear it as a dress, it'd provide quite a good coverage.

"If it's loose and black, it's Chanyeol's." Suho informed, walking out of the tiny bathroom.

Chanyeol felt blood rushing to his face at the thought of Baekhyun clad in his clothes. He was thankful that he was driving and didn't have to see him, for blood would probably rush somewhere else on his body if he did.

It had already been three or four minutes of Yixing intensively and shamelessly staring at Suho. His eyes were narrowed and lips were parted slightly.

Suho tried to ignore the obvious gaze, blocking it out by concern he had for Minseok, but there was someone not willing to cope with that suspicion and straight up rudeness.

"What's your problem?!" Minho steamed through his ears, leaning forward to shield Suho.

"Uh, em, nothing." Yixing shook his head, still looking in Suho's direction with softly lidded eyes as if Minho was transparent. "I've been thinking for a while now. Aren't you that rich guy from the TV?" He asked vaguely.

The porcelain leader felt discomfort rising from the pit of his stomach. He didn't know how to respond to a question as dull as that.

"Excuse me?" Was all he managed to force out of himself.

"Yeah, you know, that Kim family, they often appear on the national TV." Yixing pressed out of curiosity, shrugging.

"You do look familiar." Baekhyun agreed, now stopping to study Suho's face closer.

"Guys, stop staring like that." Minho sighed tiredly. "Why does it even matter now?"

"Come on, just to feed our curiosity. We've got some celebrity among us?" The droopy-eyed brunet licked his lips (per his habit).

"I'm not a celebrity. My parents own an airport here." Suho was left no choice but to answer, hoping that the discussion would have been closed.

"Woah, how come you're here now? I heard the rich fled first class off of this island when the infection spread." Baekhyun recalled, scratching under his chin.

"Yeah.. I was at university when it all happened and got caught in the swarm of evacuating people. My parents tried to send me help but the helicopter crashed." Suho said in a sorrowful tone.

"Haha, how does it feel to live in a world where money no longer matters?" The corner of Baekhyun's mouth curled up as he crossed his arms over his knees. "I don't mean to be insensitive, I'm actually curious."

Suho's face was a mixture of confusion and hurt. He forced a small smile as he rested his head against a wall.

"I've never let money get to my head."

Although his parents' business was blooming and Suho never lacked anything in life, his main focus was studying. He finished a four year course of business and administration in the university, just like his parents wanted him to, and then enrolled again to the faculty of science and technology. That's where he met Sehun and befriended him.

Suho was twenty two and the eldest in their class, whilst Sehun was only fifteen and - the youngest. The two were both pariahs and easily found a common language.

"We're here!" Jongdae shouted so loudly that the windows of the caravan shook. They had just entered a land of vast fields, spacious barns and pyramids of hay.

~~

Kyungsoo was annoyed. Whatever construction Zitao was building inside the venue, he would make Kyungsoo run back and forth for tools.

On that very occasion, the bushy-eyebrowed man was to get some nails and although he thought that every house in that area would have a big container full of nails somewhere, he was proved completely wrong.

He had just moved onto the second house. Looting was tiring and unflattering to him.

Firstly, Kyungsoo didn't like looting homes because those were farm houses. He had to walk through enormous yards before he'd reach the actual building. Secondly, it felt like he was stealing, but during those 26 days that they had spent in that village, he learned to treat looting favourably. Nobody lived in those houses any longer, anyway.

The house he had just entered was tall and commodious. The ones he searched before were all messy and jumbled. Kyungsoo could see in front of his eyes how the frightened families tossed everything out of drawers and cabinets, looking for valuable and useful belongings to save as the military troops guided them towards the fraud of a haven they were promised.

This household, however, was untouched. Kyungsoo assumed that nobody had been living there at time of the catastrophe.

There was a small kitchen which he loved: pans and pots were hanging from the ceiling light over a wide table, the whole wall was turned into a big rack for utensils. A room rich on wooden and ceramic textures.

In the middle of admiring the kitchen, Kyungsoo was caught off guard by the sound of an engine closing in. He peeked out of the wooden shutters to watch a caravan enter the driveway which was built right on the side of the spacious front yard.

"Crap.." The man hissed, looking for a place to hide. He snatched a knife off of the wall and ran into one of the rooms on the first floor. He put his back against the door and held the knife close to him.

He could hear a lot of footsteps and voices, there must have been up to ten people, that's how he knew he was in a major trouble.

"The lock is broken, what the fuck?!" He heard an angered voice followed by hasty clutter of shoes on the hardwood floor.

"Are you kidding me?" The man walked up and down the room, possibly looking for missing things.

"Did they take anything?" A softer voice quizzed.

"I-I don't know, doesn't seem like it. But I just don't understand why was it unlocked then?"

"Let's just settle down for now, okay? You'll know if something's been taken."

"You're right. Well, welcome to my house, I guess!" The man laughed.

Kyungsoo started to bead cold sweat as he heard the footsteps multiplying. Again, the sound of guns and ammunition cut through his ears.

"This place is so cool." A low voice enthused. There was a creak of the couch.

"Is there hot water running? I'm craving a shower."

"Do you guys use sun batteries?"

"How about we ask questions one at a time?" The voice of the owner of the house said. "First door to the left on the second floor is my bedroom, I have plenty of space in there, but there's another bedroom too. The back door here leads to the balcony and to our land. Just look around as you wish, okay?"

"Back door, yard, alright." Kyungsoo tried to collect his thoughts as he ran over to the window and fiddled with the shutter, but as he was about to escape, three people from the same group walked out to the balcony, blocking his way.

He crouched instantly, running his widened eyes across the room when suddenly the door swung open.

"I want a separate room!" A brunet called. Looking over his shoulder as he stepped inside.

Kyungsoo immediately looped his arm around his throat, holding a knife to the brunet's face.

His friends all swarmed up around him, three of them in total, those who had guns in their reach already drew the muzzles at the bushy-eyebrowed intruder.

"Wow, wow, easy." The tall male with a low voice said, pointing a rifle at Kyungsoo who was sending him a death glare.

"Let me go." Kyungsoo grumbled, making a slow, steady step out of the room.

"Isn't that my line?!" The brunet uttered, struggling to breathe in the tight hold of the hostile man.

"I don't want anyone hurt. Just let me walk out of this house and go without accidents." Kyungsoo tried to negotiate, his skin glowing with sweat.

"Why did you break into my house?" A man with a sniper rifle asked sternly.

Kyungsoo remained silent, pressing the tip of the knife into the skin under his hostage's chin.

"If I pull the trigger, the bullet will go through your head faster than I'll finish this sentence." The sniper said, sending chills down Kyungsoo's spine.

"I just want to leave. I don't want any blood spilled."

"Then answer my goddamn question!" The sniper raised his voice.

"I needed nails." Kyungsoo let a mouthful of air out in a stutter.

"You needed nails?"

"Yes. I was sent to find some nails, that's all."

"And you have no other intention of raiding this place or fighting us? I don't buy this bullshit."

"All I want is to leave and for you to not shoot me.. And a couple of nails would be nice too." Kyungsoo continued persistently, skipping gazes from one person in the room to another.

"Guys, come on, he just wants to leave, let him." The man with a deep voice sighed, lowering his weapon.

"So that he brings his friends back next?! No!" The sniper objected.

"All he wants is nails and he'll leave us alone, how is that not clear?! If he had any dangerous friends with him they'd already be here!"

"Chanyeol, shut the hell up! This naiveness will get you killed someday!" The brunet in Kyungsoo's neck lock yelled.

"I've traveled by myself with complete strangers enough to know that people are trustworthy! Come on, guys, don't make this scene ugly." Chanyeol begged, walking over to the sniper.

"Minseok hyung, tell him!" The gunned man whined, trying to kick Chanyeol away.

"I don't think you'll shoot, Jongdae yah, and I don't think he'll cut Baekhyun's throat, we can either stand here like this all day or actually talk." Minseok announced.

"We're at an advantage here, so you better let go of him!" Jongdae told Kyungsoo and he obeyed, loosening his arms around the brunet's neck as they fell to his sides.

Baekhyun snatched the knife out of the intruder's hand in annoyance, massaging his owm neck.

"When you want something, you ask nicely and not put blades to people's throats, for goodness' sake!" He grumbled.

~~

"Holy shit.. all that happened while we were talking a walk in the backyard?" Suho clutched on the strands of his hair, anxiously pacing up and down the room.

"Don't sweat it.." Jongdae exhaled slowly, rolling his eyes. He was infuriated.

"But you, Yixing hyung, you were in the house! How come you didn't hear a thing?!"

"The can of refried beans I had last was screaming louder in my stomach, I'm sorry." The tattooed man bowed his head guiltily.

"I almost fucking died." Baekhyun stated crossly and stomped out of the room past Yixing, shoving his shoulder with his own.

Chanyeol was about to dart after him, but Yixing gestured him to stay. "I've got it." He said dismissively and followed Baekhyun.

"Alright, back to the subject. So you were brought here by a Chinese man and settled down in one of the abandoned houses with a military dog?" Suho asked for clarification, rubbing his temples.

"Yes, to put it bluntly." Kyungsoo nodded eagerly.

"And you want us to just trust you that your military dog won't do us any harm?" The leader kept questioning, looking at Kyungsoo in distress.

"Yes." Kyungsoo nodded again, but something about Suho's expression was making him sick in the gut.

"Those people, or whatever they are, have killed the innocent!" Minho could no longer sit quietly, like a mad dog let off the leash.

"Jongin's not like them! He's an errored! He's human and we broke out of the military camp together! We found a comparably peaceful life here.. And we're not willing to give it up by messing with the neighbours. Please, believe me. I sincerely apologize for breaking in here and threatening your friend, but I was scared you'd kill me, so I did as I was taught... I had no intentions besides saving my own life." Kyungsoo vowed, hanging his head low.

"You broke out of the military?" Jongdae quizzed, raising a brow. He didn't have an insight, but from what he knew, the military was remorseless towards the said errored soldiers.

"Yes.. Jongin's really peaceful, sometimes even naive like your friend with funny ears."

"Hey." Chanyeol scowled, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Listen, you can go, but if your military dog goes near any of my friends, I'll squeeze your brains out!" Minho growled through gritted teeth.

"Calm down, Minho.." Suho put his hands on his partner's chest, lightly walking him away from Kyungsoo.

"Here." Jongdae reached for a shelf above the workbench and took a large can filled with nails off of it. He handed the can to Kyungsoo with a displeased expression plastered over his face.

"Please, just leave now."

Having once again apologized to and thanked Jongdae, Kyungsoo headed back to the venue, mumbling a thousand curses under his breath.

"Stupid Zitao. He can go fuck himself." He raged, itching to pierce his whole body with those nails, one after another, slowly and painfully for putting him in danger.

The bushy-eyebrowed intruder left Suho's team in a wreck. Everyone seemed either annoyed, scared or furious.

They neither bothered to talk for the rest of the day, nor remembered to check up on Baekhyun and Yixing.

When Baekhyun threw a scene and left, he shut himself in the first room he had come across, which happened to be the bathroom.

He leaned his back on the wall and waited paiently. He didn't have to spend there long on his own, for Yixing entered a minute later. He took his hat off and put it on the towel rack, then clicked the lock to the bathroom shut.

"Let me see." The tattooed male cupped Baekhyun's face gently, studying the reddening strip around the brunet's neck and a tiny dot of blood under his chin.

"I've left worse on you." Yixing chuckled quietly, making Baekhyun snort out a mortified laugh.

He licked his lips out of habit, gently bobbing his head up and down with an entertained smile on his face.

"Nothing serious here." Yixing assured, as if Baekhyun hadn't been aware. He scooted closer, bumping his nose into the crook of the younger man's neck and placed a gentle peck on his Adam's apple.

Yixing's hands touched the sides of Baekhyun's thighs, then carefully swept over the inner thighs and his crotch before they started to move up, crawling under his hoodie.

Baekhyun whipped his head up as Yixing's tongue brushed over the dotted blood under his chin where the knife had poked him. He pushed the other man closer and let him take the borrowed top off for him.

Having removed the hoodie, the droopy-eyed man unzipped his trousers, then pushed himself up and sat on the side of the sink, wrapping his legs around Yixing's waist. He yanked his head back by the dark locks, enjoying the sight of his slightly pained face before planting an ardent kiss on his lips.

Yixing had to really rend his fingers away from Baekhyun's torso so he could take his own shirt off, but the younger boy interfered, pulling it back down.

He broke their kiss abruptly with a loud smacking sound. "Keep your shirt on." He demanded, clumsily attempting to unbuckle the tattooed man's belt.

Yixing gave him a questioning look as he reached for the hem of Baekhyun's trousers and disposed of them.

"I'm not joking when I say that tattoo is looking at me. It makes me really uncomfortable." Baekhyun enunciated, tracing his finger around the left side of his chest, where there's a portrait underneath the fabric of his shirt.

Yixing smiled apologetically, giving him another bold kiss. His tongue glided over Baekhyun's slowly and sensibly as his hands continued to explore his silky skin, breaking free the soft moan rumbling in his throat.

"You don't have to see it." Yixing said in his crusty voice, the one that never failed to arouse his partner. He licked the pillow of his thumb teasingly and rubbed it on the brunet's stiff nipple.

Baekhyun wasn't a big fan of sloppy and disoriented sex in the dark, but Yixing had him on the edge of crying.

"Fuck you ." He hissed at another scalding touch and just slapped the light switch, leaving them in the pitch black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Didn't see that coming, did ya? ;) I love BaekXing so much it hurts. I'm a little biased. You'll notice that this arc is very similar to The Walking Dead's farm arc and although I'm extremely against copying the show, I couldn't resist borrowing this one idea and of course, giving it my own twist.  
> Thanks for reading and have a nice day!


	6. The part that hurts the most is you

As if Jongdae wasn't infuriated enough by the intruder alone, he had just noticed that something was missing.

"Oh no, no no no. Damn it!" He pulled the strands of his short hair, mustering a bitter expression mixed with wretchedness. He was looking at an empty wall above the fireplace.

"Something's wrong?" Yixing wondered, watching his friend stomping about the living room.

"My father's rifle is gone." Jongdae let out a howl, kicking the air. "They took it." He concluded and rushed to get his gun.

"All I wanted was to come home, make you guys and myself comfy, forget about all this shit for a while, go hunting again, etcetera, but something's gotta go wrong, damn it!" And with that said, he slammed the front door shut and stormed into nowhere.

"Is he going to Kyungsoo?" Baekhyun assumed, carrying on rummaging through the kitchen cabinets for a snack.

Minho detached the holster from his belt and put it down before he went after Jongdae.

"I'll be there to make sure he does nothing stupid." He announced and left the house.

Baekhyun was gazing at the broad shoulders walking through the doorway with an amazed expression plastered on his face.

"He's so awesome. I wish Chen was that cool-headed." Baekhyun said dreamily.

"Cool-headed.." Suho scoffed, lying on the couch as he crossed his forearms over his eyes. "You haven't seen him ireful. He's anything but cool-headed."

"Didn't he have some issues with the military?" Chanyeol recalled, throwing darts at an antique map hanging over the couch.

"Yeah, he does." The leader confirmed nonchalantly.

"Don't you think he then might.. lash out or something?"

"He's a grown ass man, Chanyeol. He's less likely to lash out there than you're to hit me with a dart you're throwing above my head." Suho claimed, making the tall boy grimace as he hid the darts behind his back.

~~

"Chen!" Minho called, jogging up to the high-cheekboned man.

"Minho hyung, don't try to stop me, please. I need to get it back."

"I'm not going to stop you." Minho smiled, patting the shorter boy on the shoulder.

"That rifle belonged to my dad. I inherited it, but never used... I kept it clean and neat, wanted to keep it honor of his memory. Not for some assholes to barge into my house and take it." Jongdae grumbled, saddening visibly.

"I see how it is, but we don't need any blood spilling, remember?"

Jongdae stopped abruptly and leaned towards Minho, looking him right in the eyes.

"Hyung, do you believe I could kill a person?" A woeful smile found its way to Jongdae's lips.

Minho sighed, draping an arm over Jongdae's back as he turned him around and resumed walking.

"No, you're too softhearted, but you're angry." Minho replied casually.

"What makes you think I'm softhearted?" The sniper laughed, his straight eyebrows bending downwards.

"Well, you helped us reach the shelter when we were complete strangers to you, then you brought us to your home."

"You owe your life to Minseok hyung's cuteness, just so you know." Jongdae clarified in a humorous manner, raising his pointer finger up.

"Is that so? You're into him." Minho laughed, but cut it short, growing serious. "Can you.. Not try anything with him?"

"What? Why's that?" Jongdae panicked out of the blue, shoving Minho's arm to face him.

"He has just lost someone he loved." Minho said, looking Chen in the eyes as he placed his hands over his shoulders. "I was there when he put his boyfriend in a grave with his own hands. Give him time to heal."

Jongdae's face shifted to a blend of displeased and sorry.

"Great, everything just keeps going in my favor." He said in a breaking voice as he pushed his way past Minho and wandered off towards a nearby house.

~~

Jongin was sitting on the wooden railing of the balcony, reading a book whilst listening to his boyfriend scurrying in the kitchen.

He was enjoying watching Kyungsoo so engrossed in something. At times like those he felt warm and fuzzy on the inside and was weak against the smile on his face.

He saw two figures hastily moving towards the house they had settled in. One of them was carrying a weapon and he didn't look so friendly to Jongin. He might not have ever lived like this, but he knew that new neighbors greeted others with a tray of cookies, not bullets.

He glanced over his shoulder to peek at his boyfriend through a small window. Having made sure that Kyungsoo had all of his attention engaged in cooking, Jongin hopped off the railing and calmly walked to the gate.

"Can I help you?" He asked the visitors who were right behind the gate.

"I want my father's rifle back. The sniper rifle that you assholes took out of my house." The gunned man demanded.

"I'm afraid I don't have it." Jongin raised his hands up as if in surrender.

"Stop making a fool out of me!" The gunned man raged and kicked the gate, busting the lock.

"Woah, now it's broken.." Jongin furrowed his eyebrows, taking a step back.

Hearing someone raise their voice, Kyungsoo forsook cooking and stormed outside. He saw his boyfriend standing at the gate with two people, but he couldn't see their faces from afar.

He ran head first to Jongin's side when he saw a rifle in the shorter man's hand.

"Jongin!" He called, standing in between the two. "You again?" He asked with a gasp once he saw his newly-acquaintances.

"You took my father's rifle, that's un-fucking-cool." The shorter man grasped his gun tightly, about to point it at either of them.

"I haven't taken anything, put that gun down." Kyungsoo objected.

"Or what? You'll hold a knife to my throat like you did to Baekhyun?" Jongdae fired back.

"You did what?" Jongin put the palm of his hand on Kyungsoo's chest and moved him to the back, keeping his watch on him.

"I'm sorry, I haven't told you everything about our first meeting." Kyungsoo bit his lip nervously, guiltily averting the tanned male's eyes.

The one who made him anxious was Minho. Kyungsoo still remembered the dreadful look and the pure fury swimming through his hues when he told Kyungsoo to keep Jongin away from his friends.

"Can you continue when I get my rifle back?" Jongdae interrupted, giving them a glare.

"We don't have it." Jongin repeated, facing the two visitors again. "But we can bring you to the person who most likely does."

"You're the military dog we've been told about." Minho said casually, boring holes through Jongin with his intense glare.

Kyungsoo swallowed noisily, worry boiling in the pit of his stomach.

"I don't like that term. I ain't no dog." Jongin responded coldly.

Minho forced a brief laugh out of himself. "You're called military _dogs_ because you mindlessly obey whatever your master says and you're no exception to that."

Tension hung in the air, tightening around Jongin's neck. He quietened, clenching his fits on the sides.

"We're trying to help, why are you insulting him?" Kyungsoo asked crossly, holding Jongin's wrist.

"He was there." Minho said. "You remember me, don't you?"

He never received an answer.

"Of course you do. You were there. You saw me and you saw Jinki, the guy your _master_ shot."

"I didn't shoot a single bullet that day." Jongin said back, biting the inside of his cheek.

"Yeah.." Minho cracked a smile in the corner of his mouth. "You were beside the guy who opened the fire. You could have stopped him after the first shot, could have prevented deaths of many innocent people. But you chose to play it safe. Thought you'd get your ass kicked for acting against the sergeant, so you did what was easier. You didn't shoot so you wouldn't have a part in all this."

"I was on the duty." Jongin objected.

"Don't call your cowardice a duty. This little guy over here assured us you were human and now I know you are. Military dogs have no personality, but you're selfish, just like _humans_." Minho spat, giving Jongin one last hateful glare.

"Now take my friend where he can find his rifle and let's get it over with."

The way towards the venue was painfully silent. The woe hanging in the air was tearing chunks out of Jongin's heart. He felt belittled and sorry, he felt powerless.

Minho was right. He was selfish. He was pathetic and weak because he was _errored_ , the military's synonym for _human_ , the common synonym for _weak_.

Kyungsoo couldn't close his eyes to his sun-kissed boyfriend's troubled expression. He nuzzled closer, snaking his hands around Jongin's forearm as he looked at him with concern through his thick lashes.

Jongin bowed his head and gave him a dismissive smile.

"What the hell.." Jongdae's eyes fluttered open widely, having landed upon the entrance to the small horse racing venue.

There were wooden spikes arranged all around the double metal doors that could only be opened from the inside. A wire-fenced path followed inside towards the original entrance of the venue.

Whoever Huang Zitao was, he wasn't careless.

"How are we supposed to get inside?" Jongdae's eyebrows curved downwards as he scanned the barricaded doorway.

"Ya! Zitao yah!" Kyungsoo called, banging on the metal door until an irritated, tall man with sharp eyes walked out and opened the doors for them.

Was it fate or its malicious joke, the aforementioned man walked out with Jongdae's rifle strapped to his back. Jongdae could tell by the wooden chin rest and his father's stamp engraved on it.

"That bastard.." The man with high cheekbones growled, picking up a pace towards Zitao. "Hey, nice rifle you've got there, now give it back!"

The crow-haired man frowned, knitting his eyebrows asymmetrically.

"That's my rifle." He announced, tucking it on his back.

"No? You took it from _my_ house!"

"What's your problem? I took what was left behind." Zitao reasoned, not willing to give up an excellent sniper rifle.

"Well, I've gotta tell you, you've got too comfortable." Jongdae retorted, aimlessly flailing his arms around. "You took that gun out of my house. It was empty, I understand, but it was also locked, so no matter what, you broke into it."

"There's no one here besides us, so there are no rules either. If you take it first, it's yours."

Zitao wasn't wrong to say so, for in the new world the words - found, borrowed, stolen, bargained - all carried the same meaning.

"I don't give a single fuck, I want my rifle and I'm not leaving without it." Jongdae insisted, prepping his gun, his preferred negotiator.

"Why should I feel obliged to give it to you, does it say your name on it?" Zitao scoffed, rolling his eyes as he was about to turn his back upon the visitors and go without bidding a goodbye.

"Yes it does. There's Kim Jongdae engraved on the downside of the barrel, asshole." Jongdae informed, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Like I'm going to buy it---" Zitao flouted, unconsciously checking the sniper rifle anyway.

On the underside of the barrel, engraved in tiny, silver letters was Kim Jongdae.

Zitao's orbs widened in disbelief, mouth shaped a straight line and he gave his two acquaintances an expression that read a cry for help.

Kyungsoo and Jongin spared him sympathetic glances as they struggled to hold back the laughter.

"No way around it, got to give it back, Zitao."

~~

A very delighted Jongdae entered the house, merrily carrying the family's relic.

Minho followed him silently with an unreadable scent all around him.

"Welcome back." Baekhyun cheered, raising his cup of tea in the air.

"I see you got your toy back." Yixing offered a warm smile. Chen nodded, tenderly placing the rifle back where it belonged.

He then took a small, chained cross off the wall, kissed it honourably and tied it around the rifle.

"Thank God.." Jongdae sighed in relief.

Minho walked up to Suho with his nose hanging low and the pale man extended his arms to embrace him.

As Minho ran into his arms, burying his face in the crook of his neck, one of Suho's hands weaved into the back of his head whilst the other one laid flat on Minho's back.

"Baby, you're okay, look at me." Suho chanted affectionately, gently rocking back and forth.

"Holy cow!" Jongdae shrieked in a high pitched voice.

"What what whaaaaat?!" Baekhyun sandwiched his face between his two palms, watching the scene in utter stun.

"Aw." Yixing's features softened and a gentle smile crossed his lips.

"Since when?!" The two younger men asked in unison.

"Hm?" Suho cocked a brow, hiding the lower part of his face behind Minho's shoulder.

The tall man snuggled closer to Suho, now enveloping his waist with his arms instead of just letting them hang loosely.

"I saw him.. with sergeant Kim.. when Jinki.." Minho whispered in a woeful stutter, his shoulders trembling.

"Did he..?"

"No, he didn't kill him. He just watched." The tanned man exhaled ever so excruciatingly, his breath calming in Suho's hold.

"You're strong.. " The leader muttered into his ear, stroking the back of his head.

Astounded by the discovery of their relationship, the three men decided it'd be better to give them some space and scattered around the house.

Minseok had been craving a shower for weeks. He was usually a neat guy and it killed him on the inside to cope with the filth for so long.

He spent nearly half an hour under the hot stream of water, rubbing himself clean until he nearly scrubbed his skin off.

He wasn't the shower thoughts or singing in shower kind of person, when it was down to washing, he was washing only.

But that day, out of all, was different. Once he was done with the washing part, he stood motionless with his back pressed to the wall, feeling the scalding droplets drum on his skin.

It took him longer than usual to be done and when he finally walked out, he had washed off not only dirt, but also any kind of expression from his face.

He fixed the towel around his lower body and headed for the shared bedroom.

"Jongdae yah!" He called and the high-cheekboned dongsaeng of his was quick to appear.

Jongdae was quite speechless to see half of Minseok clad in what mother nature gave him. He was unexpectedly muscular, although it never showed on his soft cheeks.

"Are there clothes I can borrow?" Minseok asked sheepishly, brushing the wet bangs back with his hand.

"Sure." Jongdae grinned. He was a tiny bit taller and skinnier than his hyung, but his old clothes should have fitted perfectly.

By the time Minseok got changed, the host had already gathered everyone for dinner. He thought they needed to just sit at one table and enjoy themselves, for the day had been long and tedious.

"What a cutie!" Jongdae enthused upon seeing Minseok clad in a pair of his old beige overalls and a navy blue shirt. Last time he wore it was six years ago.

"Quit calling me cute. I'm 27." Minseok requested tiredly, stuffing his hands in the pockets of the overalls.

His hair was tied in a pigtail on the crown of his head, which Jongdae found sexy.

The food wouldn't sit still in Minseok's stomach. He felt pangs after pangs in the pit of his belly, although he only had a tiny bite of canned fish. Comprehending that his physical and emotional state worked in synch to ruin his evening, he decided not to ruin it for the rest of his friends and left the table early.

The others continued to rejoice and chitchat merrily, all high on the good vibes and drunk on the rich wine Jongdae's family had preserved for years.

"Shouldn't we be on good terms with our neighbours, though? Kyungsoo doesn't seem like a bad guy." Chanyeol pondered vocally, hitting the plate with chopsticks like they were drumsticks.

"You're saying that because he almost killed me, aren't you?" Baekhyun teased with a smile, resting his chin on the back of his hand.

"You know I'm not." Chanyeol waved him off. "Back then.. you said my naiveness would get me killed." He recollected with a forced smile.

"Because it will." Baekhyun replied dryly, putting his hands down. "People will turn against people, that's how it's always been."

"You have such a dark mind for someone with such a bright personality." Chanyeol joked, but a small part of him still wanted to believe there was nothing negative about the charismatic brunet seated next to him.

"Just like you." Baekhyun retorted, shooting the tall boy brief glances accompanied by bashful smiles.

Maybe Chanyeol was overlooking the fact that he was talking to the man who had to execute his own sister.

But maybe he wasn't any better himself.

The table slowly started to empty. Some decided to gulp down fresh air and went strolling about Jongdae's property.

Their land wasn't exactly a farm. They had a spacious fruit and vegetanle garden, a horse barn and used to keep some chickens.

Sehun, unlike his hyungs, didn't need to aerate his head. It was no longer about being underage for drinking, it was about enjoying neither taste nor the feeling alcohol gave him.

He just wanted to go to sleep early.

Having reached Jongdae's bedroom (where they decided that Sehun, Minseok, Jongdae and Baekhyun would be sleeping), Sehun heard muffled weeping coming through the door.

He stopped at the doorway for a while, hesitating to go in. His heart was pounding and eyes started to sting, but he knew in moments like this, he didn't have to be strong.

He knocked on the door twice and called in a quiet voice:

"Hyung, it's Sehun." He said before he walked in.

Minseok was standing at the desk, back turned upon Sehun and head hung low. His hands laid flat on the desk, fingers dragging inwardly.

His shoulders rose and fell rapidly, stuttering as he gulped for air through sobs.

"Sehunnie.." Minseok uttered through bitter tears that kept noisily dripping down on his hands and the desk. One of his sleeves raised to wipe his eyes and that's when he weakened in knees and bent in spine, laying his head on the table.

"I hate myself, I hate myself so much.. Why did I let him go alone, it's all my fault.." He wept harrowingly.

Sehun's heart crumpled in pain, he felt stabs in his chest and a suffocating burn in the back of his throat.

"I miss him so much.." Minseok cried when Sehun hugged his back, resting the side of his face on the older man's shoulder blade.

"I miss him too.." Sehun emitted as pearls of tears broke loose, rolling down his face and clinging to the tip of his nose.

Minseok turned around and embraced the younger boy back, holding him securely.

"If I had known he'd have been gone so soon, I'd always tell him that I loved him, I'd tell him every day, I'd tell him.. more than I did.. I should have told him more often.." Minseok stuttered, following each brief sentence by a long and agonizing drag of air.

Sehun squeezed his eyes shut, tightening his hold around the older man. He wanted the tears out of him to the last drop. He wanted to cry it all out once and for all.

It ached beastly, much worse than when Luhan broke out the news of him dating Minseok.

It was just a normal day a year back. Sehun was 17 and finally started to feel that he and Luhan walked the same ground. He had never really been a kid, except for his toddler days, but the age gap had always been there.

Sehun had never been a fan of romantic literature, but in all the books he had read, best friends always ended up as lovers. He had no other guide to learn from. Even his mom told him she had been best friends with his father for the longest time before they got married.

It was normal.

It was only normal that he had fallen in love with Luhan.

They might never end up together like those book characters, Sehun realized that, because Luhan's love for him was solely platonic and although he said he never thought of Sehun as of a child, his first reason to reject Sehun would have been the age gap.

Sehun chose to keep his hopes low.

On that day, they hung out like they usually would, they laughed and played like they usually would. Sehun wasn't ready for what was to come.

They had just stopped at an open air cafe which served stir fried rice and bubble tea. It was a chill evening in the amusement park, some random pop song was blasting out of speakers, blurred lights were flickering in the back..

"Buy me more tea?" Sehun wiggled his eyebrows, raising an empty plastic cup in the air in front of Luhan's face.

"That's a third one, hell no!" Luhan laughed, moving the cup out of his face. "You're the one who had been a fixed employee at 13 and I'm the one who's part timing at 25. _You_ should buy me a drink." He reasoned facetiously, sipping on his own tea.

"How can you say that to a baby?" Sehun whined humorously.

"You're the baby who calls me little Lu. What does that make me, an infant?"

"But I'm no longer employed." Sehun pouted, feeling a prick in his chest.

Luhan looked at him for a second with narrowed eyes.

"Okay, one last cup, you fox." He cracked a wide smile. "How's university, by the way?"

"Hm.. I still get new bullies even now that it's been two years. Which is funny. People gain respect for me once they know I'm friends with Junmyeon, completely disregarding the fact that I'm on top of class."

"Don't mind them, Sehunnie."

"I know it's the word schizophrenic that draws them away, which is even funnier because the only person who has had to deal with it in action, Junmyeon, is my friend.."

"People tend to be afraid of what they don't know. But fret not, you've been blessed with a friend like yours truly." Luhan joked merrily, putting his hand on his heart.

Sehun cracked a smile through zipped lips, bowing his head.

"Now you owe me two bubble teas for that shamelessness." Sehun blurted as he picked his phone up to check something.

"I _owe_ you?!" Luhan outraged with a grin, throwing the boy a light punch in the arm.

Out of the blue, the mood shifted. Luhan's toothy smile faded and was immediately replaced by an apologetic one.

"Sehunnie, I've got something to tell you." He said whilst playing with his fingers.

"Yeah?" Sehun lowered his phone, giving all of his attention to his friend.

The music slipped in Sehun's ears like he was underwater, the lights were still flickering carelessly in the background..

"I asked someone out." Luhan announced, stretching his arms across the table.

The prick in Sehun's chest grew into pain comparable with someone stabbing his heart with a crook and then wiggling it around.

He froze momentarily before forcing a tiny smile. He nodded slowly, rhythmically tapping the corner of his phone on the table.

"Minseok hyung?" He asked, fighting the tears building up in the back his throat.

"Yeah.." Luhan confirmed shyly.

Sehun had never seen him blushing like that. His whole face was visibly pink and the expression on it read a strong desire to sink into the floor and disappear.

He was unbelievably cute.

"Did he say yes?"

"Yep."

"Then, congratulations." Sehun uttered ever so painfully, trying to pull himself together. "You should buy me tea so we can celebrate."

"I already agreed to buy you another tea, damn it!" Luhan broke into a fit of tremolos laughter.

Sehun couldn't help being jealous at first, but he found himself capable of complying with his own emotions.

Back then it hurt like it had never before, but the pain caused by the loss overpowered everything he had ever experienced.

He was no longer sure he could make more room for the hurt.

"Minseok hyung.." Sehun coughed out, looking up at the ceiling as more beads began to well up in his eyes. "I'm happy he had you by his side."

Minseok's mind had gone blank. Sehun's words were lingering in the shells of his ears as translucent pearls formed rivers down his cheeks.

He wrinkled his forehead and squinted his eyes, coercing yet another flood of tears.

~~

Jongdae asked Suho to make a run with him to check the water tanks, just so he could ask him something in private.

"So what is it?" The leader wondered, a little tipsy since dinner.

"I wanted to ask about Minseok hyung, Minho hyung said he's lost someone. I just want to know things like their name, their relationship, cause of death, that'll do." Jongdae asked docilely.

Suho cocked an eyebrow, finding the request a little odd, but in an intoxicated state of his, simply knowing that Chen didn't have any bad intentions was enough.

"Alright." He hesitantly pulled on the 'a'.

"So.. It was Luhan. That's the whole name, just Lu Han. He was a little younger than Minseok hyung. They became friends three years ago through a football team, had been dating for a year. Two days ago he.. he got bitten protecting Minseok and Chanyeol. Took his own life right in front of our eyes." Suho broke a sweat recalling the dreadful morning.

"I'm so sorry.." Jongdae hung his head low. "Thanks, hyung, you seem to have known him quite well."

"Not really. I knew him through Sehun, they were best friends." Suho clarified, biting his lip. "He was a really lovable guy. Kind, happy, cute like a little boy." He said with a morose smile.

"That's a trait he shared with Minseok hyung." Jongdae laughed humorlessly. "May I also ask about Jinki?"

Suho was bewildered to hear that question. Why was Jongdae being nosey about the deceased?

"Why'd you ask?"

"It's just.. I don't like that they've passed without a proper burial. I just want to pray for their souls."

A soft smile curled on the corners of Suho's mouth as he nodded understandingly.

"That's very thoughtful of you."

"Nothing special." Jongdae shrugged, it was an ordinary ritual to him. "So, Jinki?"

"Lee Jinki, Minho's best friend. During the evacuation, the boats got overcrowded so the military shut the gate to the shore. People left behind started to panic and one of them dashed onto the sergeant Kim Jonghyun.. Out of patience and irresponsible as he got, he opened fire and shot the guy, threatening to shoot anyone who comes near the gate.. but people were startled and only kept pushing, so he shot again.. One of the bullets hit Jinki in the chest."

"That sergeant Kim has long gone nuts, they should have fired him back when he started training orphans, but all military did to stop him was to change his rank back to lance corporal." Jongdae gritted his teeth. "Where you there when _that_ happened?"

"I was.. And I still remember Jinki's face when the bullet pierced his chest. He fell to his knees and then collapsed face first. I will never forgive sergeant what he did.. Ex sergeant, apparently." Suho's eyes started to well up as his eyebrows furrowed crossly.

~~

Later that day, Jongdae left without telling anyone where he was going. Out of both concern and curiosity, Baekhyun followed him all the way to his final destination - the local church.

Jongdae entered the church and took three candles, then headed for the graveyard next to it.

Baekhyun leaned on a tree with his arms crossed over his chest and silently watched him sitting in front of two gravestones with a wide smile on his lips.

He felt uneasy. He wished his family had passed away quietly, had a funeral and a cozy, neat grave somewhere, rather than having been murdered by his sister that turned into an infected first.

Once Jongdae was done, he stood up, wiped himself and pressed his forehead to each of the stones.

"Bye mom, bye dad. I'm glad you don't have to go through this hell with me." He muttered under his breath, his features no longer showing any emotion.

"All done?" Baekhyun asked as the other man walked past him. He pushed himself away from the tree and turned around.

"Actually, no." Jongdae said with his back still exposed to Baekhyun. He spun on his heel and gave the brunet a cold glare.

Making a step towards him, Jongdae swung his arm across and punched his friend in the face.

Baekhyun's head turned from the impact and he grasped his stinging cheek immediately, letting out pained squeaks.

"What was that for?!"

"You know exactly what." Jongdae retorted, sighing wearily. "This was not the first time you've done something like this when the situation was tense. I was going crazy worried there because of that Kyungsoo guy breaking in and nearly killing you! And what did you do in the middle of it?! Decided it was the best time to fuck Yixing!" He flared out, fighting the urge to kick Baekhyun in the stomach.

The brunet hushed, holding onto his stinging cheek as his eyes wandered around the cemetery not to meet Jongdae's.

"I swear to God, Byun Baekhyun, I'm tired of this and I'm not going to condone it next time. There's time and place to be a whore and you missed the timing quite a bit." He finished and headed home with a displeased scowl stuck to his face.

"Chen!" Baekhyun called, jogging up to him. "Just because we're in your house, I'll respect that wish. But don't think I didn't see how hungrily you were looking at Minseok during the dinner." He backfired, smirking to himself as he saw tips of Jongdae's ears growing a vivid red tint.

About to go back, the two heard blood-curdling cries for help in the distance.

"I think it's coming from the venue." Jongdae assumed and ran in the direction of the horse racing facility.


	7. The more the dark consumes me I pretend I'm burning bright

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Seven chapters, seven different song lyrics for titles. Anyone recognized at least one? Anyway, I'm tired.. I have three students to tutor, fourth language to learn, university to attend, drawings to draw ;w; I'm tearing to pieces because I can't follow schedules and then I end up doing nothing and... Well, you're all familiar with this situation.  
> Thanks for reading!

Jongdae was now assured that the voice was coming from the venue, yet he couldn't get inside to help.

"Do you think there's a walker inside?" Baekhyun wondered, catching up to the sniper.

"I can see him." Jongdae responded, jogging towards the side of the venue where there was a tall wired fence.

Zitao was hugging a wooden pole to prevent himself from sliding down into a walker's arms. He was desperately yelling and straight up screaming in fear.

"Aren't you going to shoot it?" Baekhyun quizzed, watching the black-haired man aimlessly kicking his legs in the air.

"He did take my rifle and didn't want to give it back, but that's not exactly a good reason to shoot him." Jongdae shrugged, a smug smile crawled to his lips as he indulged in the show.

"Oh, he's the one who had it?" Baekhyun laughed. "Okay but seriously, are you going to save him or not?"

"Do I have a choice?" Jongdae sighed, prepping his gun.

"Hey! Zitao!" He called whilst catching the zombie under his aim.

The black-haired man whipped his head in the two's direction, mustering a pleading expression.

"Help me!" He shouted and attempted to wave, which only got him sliding down the pole.

"I'd pay any money to see how he got on that pole in the first place." Jongdae laughed, still restraining the bullets.

"Chen, stop fooling around, he'll die like this." Baekhyun remarked, giving Jongdae a glare.

In the end, Zitao's grip loosened and he landed his feet on the infected's face, knocking it down.

As the infected was about to go after Zitao, Jongdae fired, planting a bullet hole in the center of its forehead.

"All done." He said as he lowered his weapon.

"Hey! Zitao! I want you to do me a favour!"

~~

Jongin had been restless since he met Minho earlier. He kept spacing out as he and Kyungsoo continued wandering about the swamps near the village.

"Jongin. Pull yourself together, whatever you're regretting now is in the past." Kyungsoo said in a low, stern voice.

Jongin flinched, lowering his pistol he had been aiming at a walker on the opposite side of the mudded pond.

"I can't." He exhaled pitifully and plopped down on his behind, resting his hands at his sides.

"I think I'm somehow better than all the others and that I deserve a quiet life like this. But the truth is, I don't. Taemin is better than me, he always did an excellent job.. I've been a flop since the beginning and I'll always be one." He blurted, his voice dying down with each word.

"You deserve this."

"Did you not hear that guy? His friend died because of the military. He died because I couldn't stop Jonghyun, although I really wanted to stop him, but I was petrified. One wrong move and I'd be dead, so I sacrificed those people instead." Jongin started to tear up as he tossed pebbles into the pond.

Kyungsoo picked his pistol up and aimed for the walker's head. Having succeeded on second try, he started to grow worried for the noise.

"This will draw more of them here, won't it?" He swallowed, looking at Jongin for clarification.

"Let's hope we're far enough from civilisation.." Jongin shrugged and stood up, taking his pistol from his boyfriend.

"That's what we hoped for before Key found us too." Kyungsoo mumbled, looking down guiltily.

"Hey," They heard a voice creeping on them from behind.

They both shot their gazes over their shoulders, wrinkling foreheads.

"Hi, I'm Chanyeol." The intruder introduced himself, smiling warmly at the two.

"Hey." Jongin smiled back.

Kyungsoo swallowed noisily. Seeing anyone from their group made him uneasy and he couldn't help his unintentional and hostile expression.

"I saw you two going here fully armed and I got curious." Chanyeol admitted bashfully. "I'm sorry my friends gave you a cold shoulder." He said to Kyungsoo, approaching the two.

The bushy-eyebrowed man nodded, averting Chanyeol's eyes as he stood across from them, keeping his hands on his hips.

"I'm Jongin. I'm sorry for the trouble Kyung hyung gave you." The sun-kissed man laughed merrily, nudging his boyfriend as he gave him an affectionate look.

"You're the soldier that escaped the military? I've been wondering if it's true since I heard the story." Chanyeol quizzed, studying Jongin from head to toes. The only distinct thing he could put his finger on was the name tag hanging on a long, beaded thread on Jongin's neck. It said "Kai - A2".

"Yeah, if it hadn't been for Kyungsoo, I'd probably have been killed within a couple of years anyway." Jongin explained, looking into the sky.

"Why's that?"

"Because military soldiers are not supposed to have human emotions which can impede one's loyalty to the duties and I.. well, I had a lot of those, although they had been trying to kill them in me for 18 years.."

"That's a good thing they didn't, right?"Chanyeol asked with an uncertain grin on his face.

"Who knows, maybe it'd be easier for everyone if they did." Jongin muttered sorrowfully.

"Take that back." Kyungsoo hit the boy in the waist, making an 'oof' come out of his lungs.

"Are you guys dating?" Chanyeol asked straightforwardly, not batting an eye, although the question got both Jongin and Kyungsoo flustered.

They both felt blood rushing to their faces as Kyungsoo bowed his head and Jongin whipped his to the side.

"We're dating?"

"We've never been on a date, this ain't dating."

"Coexisting?"

"Now that's too cold of a word for that. How about domestic partnership?"

"You just made it worse.."

The two carried on blabbering, mortified to the core.

Chanyeol cracked a smile in the corner of his lips, finding the two cute. He sincerely wanted his friends to see this side of Kyungsoo so they could change their minds.

"I love stories like yours." He said out of the blue as he crouched down, resting his chin on the palms of his hands. "Gives me faith in love."

Flushing red color on their cheeks once again, Kyungsoo and Jongin looked at each other briefly and then back at Chanyeol.

Jongin felt uncomfortable because of the sensible strain in the air, but somehow the tall man in front of him wasn't giving him any bad vibes.

"I've been touring around the globe for eight months before this all happened. I actually loved this island the most, I thought I'd linger here for a while and here's what I get." Chanyeol sighed in defeat, shaking his head. "But everything happens for a reason, right? What'd you do before the catastrophe, Kyungsoo?" A bright like the sun smile shone on Chanyeol's face again.

Kyungsoo's lips had been holding the shape of a line since he first met Chanyeol and his friends, and there was still no readable expression on him.

"I didn't do much due to health problems." He answered nonchalantly.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Chanyeol bent his eyebrows pitifully. "Then why'd they take you to the military?"

Kyungsoo shrugged. Tint of fury written over his face.

"That was military's desperation. One of Jonghyun's genius ideas again."

"Who's that?" The man with pointy ears pried, tilting his head to the side as he cocked an eyebrow.

"The military fucking superstar." Jongin scoffed, looking down. "Lance corporal, as of now." One could see a smirk curl on the tanned man's lips.

"He's responsible for the most notorious projects, basically he's the reason the military gained a bad name at all. He took Jongin in when he was four and has trained him like a machine since.." Kyungsoo shot his boyfriend a saddened look.

Out of a sudden, another infected walked out of the thick veil of leaves and continued to limp towards the group.

Jongin jumped bolt upwards and rimmed the pond to take it out.

"It's a little scary," Chanyeol laughed faintly, covering his mouth with the back of his hand. "He's tall, muscular, probably good with any gun."

"He's very agile too." Kyungsoo pulled the corner of his mouth up. "Moves gracefully.. Just glides over you like silk."

Chanyeol's mien shifted from amused to surprised and lastly to averse.

"Eeew Kyungsoo! I did not need to know that..." He uttered as he watched Jongin skillfully knock the walker down and smash its head to pieces with his foot.

"Why'd you really come here? I understand that your friends distrust us, but we're trying to take all the walkers in the area out for everyone's safety while you guys are carelessly making yourself comfortable." Kyungsoo's tone changed, the air around him became heavier.

"That's not it..." Chanyeol shook his head furiously. "I wanted to be your friend, that's it."

"Friend?" Kyungsoo gave him a perplexed look.

"You're trying to get closer than necessary, that's what you're doing." Jongin spoke from behind, catching the taller boy by surprise.

"What?"

"We believe that at a time like this, humans should fight together against the dead, rather than fighting each other. But being attached to someone is uncalled for." Kyungsoo said in an artificial, robotic manner which sent chills down Chanyeol's spine.

"Why'd you say that? You guys are attached to each other."

"That's exactly why we've vowed to never put ourselves in danger for someone else. We live for one another and only. I'm sorry." Jongin explained, as he took Kyungsoo's hand and pulled him away.

"Just now," Chanyeol raised his voice, but the two didn't spare him a glance whilst they continued their way towards the venue. "Just now you said you were clearing this place for everyone's safety. You care, you can't deny it."

"It entails our safety initially." Jongin said lastly, shooting a brief glance over his shoulder. His face had apology written over it as his head turned and bowed in regret.

~~

Minseok watched tangerine beams leak into the room through the wooden shutters. The golden blanket of the setting sun gently laid upon the sleeping child in striped patterns.

Sehun had dosed off soon after he finished crying and Minseok hauled him to the bed. He silently sat on the mattress next to him as Sehun's hands seized his wrist tightly.

Once the grasp around his wrist loosened, notifying Minseok that the youngster had fallen asleep, he carefully removed his hand and walked out of the room, shutting the door behind himself.

The sun was just about set by then. The house started to dim within.

Minseok went down the stairs to observe quite an odd spectacle;

Jongdae was on his knees in front of a low, wooden cabinet. There were framed pictures of Christian Saints resting on the cabinet and the wall above it, two large empty candle holders on both sides and a long, rectangular container with sand in it, a few molten candles sticking out of the sand and a couple of smoldering ones.

Minseok furrowed his eyebrows, carefully approaching the boy from behind. He didn't want to disturb. Although he had never been religious, he wouldn't hinder someone else's rituals, prayers or any kind of practice of religion.

He watched the younger man light another candle and hold it in front of his face for a couple of seconds.

"Lu Han, the one who lost his life protecting loved ones, may God watch over your soul, rest in peace." He said in a low and tender voice before he stood the candle up in the sand, then crossed himself slowly.

Minseok's heart throbbed in pain. He was astounded by how Jongdae knew about Luhan at all, but at that point, he could only watch and admire.

He dragged a stuttered breath, louder than anticipated, which drew Jongdae's attention instantly.

He tossed a glance over his shoulder, giving Minseok a smile and a nod.

"I hope you'll forgive my being nosy, hyung. It saddens me that people we love and care about go without having a proper burial ceremony, so I at least want to honor their memory."

Minseok walked closer and sat on his knees next to Jongdae, balling his fists on his thighs.

"My mom told me that we light candles so that the souls of the deceased find their way to heaven." Jongdae smiled, unblinking whilst his eyes remained glued to the smolder.

"This one is for Yixing's fiance, Chihyun and the other one is for Minho hyung's friend, Jinki." He explained, pointing with his chin.

"I hope they're in a better place." Minseok whispered, bowing his head low. "Although believing it doesn't make the pain any easier to endure."

"When my mother passed away from cancer, my pastor told me something that's been lingering in my mind since then. He said that the pain remains as long as the memory does. We just learn to live with it." Jongdae gave Minseok a soothing pat on the back.

"Yeah.. Thank you, Jongdae. I really appreciate this." Minseok uttered, tear-eyed and touched to the core. For the first time, he felt some kind of relief and he was extremely grateful, but his wounds were not yet ready to close up and become scars.

~~

Days went by slowly and peacefully and everyone was starting to adjust to living cautiously. Rarely did a walker pass by, only to be taken care of by the people patrolling Jongdae's fields for the time being.

Today it was Suho and Minho standing on guard while others went on about their business. They all worked cooperatively to survive and to _live._

 _"_ I still have a hard time believing Chen convinced Zitao to give him these horses." Baekhyun smiled as he ran his hand over the smooth mane of a chestnut-colored stallion.

"Well, he was in a venue with horses he didn't need.. And Chen saved his life, it's only normal." Chanyeol reasoned, mustering a sour expression as he climbed onto the saddle and balanced himself on the back of an ink-colored horse.

"This isn't as easy as Chen makes it look.." He complained, struggling to keep the animal standing in one place.

"He's been riding horses before he learned to speak.. probably." The droopy-eyed man snickered, hooking one foot on a  stirrup iron as he pushed himself off the ground. It took him a couple of attempts to get on, which he blamed on the poorly strapped saddle.

"No, Baekhyun, it's because you're a little short, that's it." Chanyeol laughed, pulling the reins.

"I am not short, I am fun-sized!" Baekhyun retorted, pointing his chin up as he guided his horse towards the venue around which all the shops and facilities were situated.

A depressing emptiness reigned in the area. Only leaves and slivers of garbage cluttered and rustled as the soft breeze dragged them along the pavement.

"This is so sad." Baekhyun scowled, twirling in his seat to look around.

"You say this every time we come here." Chanyeol smiled faintly.

"Because nothing changes at all and it pisses me off!" The brunet outraged, unintentionally thrusting the reins. The confused horse stood on its back hooves before it violently dashed forward.

"Baekhyun!" Chanyeol cried out and rushed after his friend.

Baekhyun was fast to calm the startled animal and managed to stop it a few meters away from a local bar.

He studied the ramshackle building for a few seconds before Chanyeol caught up with him.

"You alright?"

"Yeah.. Gave me nothing but giggles." Baekhyun dismissed the taller man, still taring at the bar. "Do you want to?" He looked over his shoulder with a wide smile.

"Huh? A bar? We can drink at Jongdae's place if you want to.." Chanyeol reminded, scratching the back of his head.

"No, there's a piano." The brunet clarified, pointing with his index finger through the window.

The two entered the bar cautiously, tiptoeing inside with their weapons ready to shoot. Baekhyun was completely lost in the sight of the dusty piano in the far end of the room when a walker jumped him from the side.

He shuddered, releasing a short scream as he tried to push it away. Chanyeol hurriedly tore the walker away from the smaller man and stuck a knife through its temple.

Baekhyun's eyes were frozen on Chanyeol's broad back as his shoulder blades flexed with the strain put on his biceps. He felt safe behind him, still a part of him wanted to discard the caution and the danger, to indulge in feelings beyond constant fear. It always kicked in during the most unsuitable time, but he couldn't help it.

He was scared and he needed a distraction.

"We shouldn't be here.." Chanyeol said as he got the blade out of the corpse and let it fall to the ground.

"I just want to play. Come on, I'm going crazy here." Baekhyun whined, moving over to the piano. He ran his hand over the dusty lid, trying to read the label.

"You can play?"

"Learned for seven years." The man smiled as he opened the lid and pulled up a stool. "And what for.. Crushed dreams, delusional career and years of cutting some nasty assholes' hair instead."

"You've never talked about your past to me." Chanyeol chanted as he rummaged through the shelves of shattered bottles of alcohol.

Baekhyun's fingers moved across the keys smoothly, effortlessly. He hadn't played in a long time and the notes were coming out crooked and rusty from the old piano, creating a perfect dissonance in the air, but he loved it.

The sound might not have been the most melodic, but Chanyeol was captivated by Baekhyun's silk touch, how the keys seemed to bend under his fingertips, how he could see his heart pouring out onto the monochrome tiles, how his spine curved in and out as he rocked his upper body to the chaotic rhythm of the song he was playing.

Baekhyun's fingers picked a slower pace, making the notes linger in the air before they faded out into the grave hush again.

"You're amazing." Chanyeol grinned from ear to ear, giving the brunet a round of applause.

Baekhyun smiled bashfully, nodding his head. "Thanks." He whispered, still tapping his fingers on the keys without making a sound.

Without a superfluous word, Chanyeol sat down next to him and pressed a key, and another, and another before he put both hands over the tiles and played a slow, gawky melody.

"I'm much better at the guitar but.. Well.." He laughed, immediately pressing his hands to his sides.

"That wasn't half bad." Baekhyun smiled, then pinned his eyes to the shelves. "Might even sound good to me in a couple of shots." He smirked, raising his eyebrows suggestively.

"I don't think we should drink now." Chanyeol shook his head.

"You did find a brandy, don't think I missed that." Bakehyun gave him a side eye and nudged him in the side. "I become very talkative when I drink."

Baekhyun's suggestiveness had made the air around them pink. At that time Chanyeol could have sworn there were threads tying him to the shorter man.

It didn't take anything else to convince him to have a sip.

They were quarter way through the bottle when Chanyeol's stare had stopped on Baekhyun's hands again; he was strangely attracted to the long and slender fingers gripping the glass of brandy by the rim.

He kind of wanted those fingers in his mouth.

"When we first met.." Baekhyun started, light drunkenness making his words wander. "You called yourself selfish and burst into tears. What was that about?" His merry laughter rang to the echo as his forehead pressed against the table and fist slammed on it repeatedly.

Chanyeol's cheeks flushed a bright pink as he looked away, biting his lip.

"It's really fucked up... I'm really fucked up." He covered his eyes with the back of his sleeve.

"You seem like a very selfless guy to me. But it seems like you've gone a long way to become who you are today." Baekhyun pondered aloud, resting the side of his face on his palm.

"Nice guess. I was born and raised in South Asia in a very poor family. I was seventeen when my father passed away. That left us in a wreck. Me, my mother, my older sister and my baby niece, we all had been struggling since then. I took my father's death the worst.. I.. started to suffer from severe depression and that's where everything went wrong. I barely showed up at home, hung out with wrong people in wrong places. It was all about alcohol and sex and mild drugs, just, all about wasting away." He began, hanging his head low as the palm of his hand flew to cover his mouth.

Baekhyun let him take his time, for the story was off to a heavy start.

"There was a girl, at that time I thought I liked her, we were just regular sex partners to each other but then she started to sneak in some weird concoctions and medications and," He started to tear up, the pitch of his voice went higher. "She said it'd make me feel better for a while.. and it did.. so she kept giving it to me and I couldn't stop. I found myself shaking and aching without it. Kind of like when you have a very bad itch but can't reach it, but worse, much worse. In the end I was seriously addicted. And it came with a price. I needed money for drugs and I didn't have it, so I---" He broke the sentence off, placing both hands over his face as his whole body trembled.

"Hey, come on, Chanyeol, stay with me." Baekhyun grabbed the taller man by the shoulders and shook him gently.

"Yeah, I'm alright.." Chanyeol muttered into his hands, removing them from his face.

"What did you do to get the money?"

"I stole it.. from my own mother." Chanyeol let out a huff, clutching his thick hair at roots. "We were struggling so much, I should have started to do something when my dad passed, go on with school, find a job, help my mom out. But instead I doomed them. I doomed my own family. It took me too long to realize that I had fucked up really bad; my mom was becoming so thin, her ribs were defined under her grey skin... My sister, she was a single mother and.. she put the baby before her. My niece she.. she got very sick and we didn't have any money to get her help, all because I was so far gone. I decided... I decided that I needed to leave, their lives would have been so much better without me. So one day I just did that. I left home with nothing but my outfit on me. I knew I deserved the pain I felt from not using the drug, and I wandered around.. desperate and agonized. If I had a gun, I'd have shot myself back then. But it went away.. with time it did and my addiction was gone too.. it was just me and my conscience. Just about a year ago I started to travel. I became happy. People liked me, I always made friends with everyone, they'd spare me water, food, transportation, a bed. I'd clean the dishes at restaurants for meals, I'd polish the floors to sleep in a hotel.. and I was constantly moving further and further away from where I left my own family to rot. They needed me, it was my responsibility of a son and of a man to take care of them and I didn't. I forgot what I left behind and moved on like they never existed. I never gave them a call or sent them a letter.. and now I'm sitting here fed, hydrated, not lacking sleep, while they're somewhere either dead or alive. There's no one in this world that I hate more than I hate myself. I wish I had died instead of Luhan. I can't believe someone like him gave his life to me.. to a scum, to a coward and a selfish bastard. Why didn't I die from that goddamn food poisoning?!" He finished, gritting his teeth as tears poured out of his eyes.

He bent in spine, laying his head on his knees and sobbed loudly.

"Fuck.. I really really hate myself. If I could go back, I'd change so much.. I'd change everything."

Baekhyun was dumbfounded. He could have never imagined Chanyeol to have such a pitiful background. He was a book far more interesting than the brunet had anticipated.

He waited for Chanyeol to pull himself together again. In the meantime, he just laid his arm across the counter and rested the side of his head on it, watching the tall man's shoulders rise and fall arrhythmically.

~~

"Aren't you a real deceit, Park Chanyeol? No wonder they say not to judge a book by it's cover." Baekhyun smiled, looking into Chanyeol's swollen eyes.

He had waited for an hour or two for him to get over the unleashed emotions and was starting to nod off.

"You're edgy. You're not afraid to face up to your mistakes and you're a learner, I like that." The words slipped through his weakly sealed lips as eyelids rolled over his eyes.

Chanyeol didn't answer. He just watched Baekhyun dossing off. Once his eyes were shut completely and his breath was steady, he carefully leaned in and pressed his lips to Baekhyun's.

The brunet didn't even flinch upon the contact as he raised his head and adjusted it to the kiss, delving deeper inside Chanyeol's mouth.

He didn't let the kiss last, once again leaving Chanyeol hungry for any physical contact besides their touching lips and tongues.

Chanyeol pulled away confused and annoyed to an extent, but he wouldn't let it show.

"Rude." Baekhyun grinned, leaning his back on the chair. "You kissed me without permission."

Chanyeol stretched a bewildered smile as his head shook faintly. "Do I need your permission for that?"

"I asked for permission when I wanted to kiss you, it'd just be polite of you to do the same." The droopy-eyed male responded, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Wait, what the hell, are you being serious?" Chanyeol quizzed, knitting his eyebrows as he pushed his chair closer, keeping his elbow on the counter. "Do you not like me?" He blurted out, his mouth opening in surprise.

"Like you?" Baekhyun nearly gouged his eyes out, sitting bolt upwards in his seat. "Wow, wow, wow, hold up, buddy! I never said I liked you like that."

"What?! You've been obvious, Baekhyun."

"I don't like you like that." The brunet fired straightforwardly, slamming his palm on the table as his distressed expression turned towards the wall on the side and his eyes started to wander.

"What's wrong with you? You ask for a kiss when we first meet, you continue to be flirty and inviting, you basically get us drunk here and now you're telling me you don't like me like that? Then how do you like me?" Chanyeol's tone grew stricter and more agitated than before as he started to throw his hands around.

Having received nothing but silence in response, Chanyeol rolled his head and started tapping his fingers on the counter.

"Is it because you like Yixing?"

"No!" Baekhyun protested, feeling blood rush to his face. He thought no one except for Jongdae knew about their affairs at all. "It's not about that, alright? Love is dead, Chanyeol, there's nothing but lust now. You don't get emotionally attached to people because they _die_. We'll all die and someone will always be in pain for us. Just like Luhan died, like Chihyun died. I don't want to live with something I won't be able to let go." With that said, Baekhyun stormed out of the bar and climbed onto the saddle of the chestnut-colored horse. Before Chanyeol knew, he heard the clutter of hooves disappearing into the distance.

"For fuck's sake.." Chanyeol slapped himself on the forehead, angrily knocking the glassware off the bar counter.

~~

Suho was more than just alarmed to see Baekhyun returning alone, furiously pulling the reins as he entered the field and dashed past the two patrolling the area.

"Where's Chanyeol?!" Suho yelled after Baekhyun who was headed for the barn.

"Still at the venue! He'll be here soon!" Baekhyun assured.

"Did you guys find the pieces for Sehun's laptop?" The leader asked loudly whilst Baekhyun was taking the saddle off the exhausted animal.

"No and I almost got killed by a goddamn zombie. I'm not going anymore!"

"A zombie?! And you left Chanyeol there alone?" Suho's mouth flew open as he jumped off of the small watch tower and ran in the direction of the venue.

"It's personal!!" The brunet had to shout on top of his lungs to make Suho stop on his tracks.

The pale man's pace slowed drastically and eventually, he stood still with his shoulders loosened and face showing displeasure.

"You nearly gave me a heart attack, Baekhyun."

Back at the bar near the venue, Chanyeol was about to head back home when he saw one of his teammates in the distance.

Yixing was strolling in the direction of the small attraction park which was quite far from the horse racing venue. There was a shotgun in his arm and a holster full of ammunition around his waist.

"Speak of the devil.." Chanyeol grumbled under his breath as he stepped on the stirrup iron and got himself up on the saddle. The least he wanted to be reminded of was Yixing and Baekhyun and whatever was between them.

Without questioning where and why the tattooed man was going alone and fully armed, Chanyeol just turned his horse around and rode it all the way home with an ever-lasting frown across his lips.

Minho and Suho were still observing the surroundings from the watch tower when the man with pointy ears returned - fallen into the chasms of gloom and irritated.

"Chanyeol, is everything okay?" Minho asked out of concern, looking at their friend's distasteful mien.

"No." Chanyeol shook his head as he entered the barn.

Suho was a little afraid to ask after having been snapped at by Baekhyun, but he had to.

"Did you find the---"

"No, sorry. Someone else should go look for the computer pieces."


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I don't have a title for this :/ Also, *whispers* I'm sorry.

It was long past the sunset when Sehun was cleaning the solar battery panels on the roof of Jongdae's house. He had concluded way back that their family was well off, but that wasn't the thought sitting on the edge of his mind anymore.

He was staring off the rooftop for fifteen minutes straight. Endless fields of green stretched across the horizon as a blanket of dark starter to grow behind the maroon skyline.

"Where's Yixing hyung?" He pondered out loud, leaning on the white handrails. From the dormer window of the gable that looked out onto the flat roof, one could see Jongdae's bedroom.

Baekhyun was lying inside, pillow squeezed to his face as he kicked his legs in the air occasionally. When he heart Sehun mention Yixing, he sat bolt upwards and discarded the pillow, then swung the dormer window open outwards.

"Sehunnie!" He yelled, scaring the youth out of the child.

Sehun twitched, blinking unintentionally and rapidly.

"Did you say Yixing?" The droopy-eyed man pried, climbing out of the window. He carefully stepped over the solar panels and stood next to the tall boy. "He hasn't come back?"

"No.. Unless he's wearing an invisible cloak and managed to slip past mine and Suho's sight." Sehun shrugged.

"Where had he left to? I'll go after him."

"It's okay, Suho and Minho will find him." Sehun waved the brunet off, grabbing the bucket of soiled water that he used to clean the panels before dumping it out onto the plum trees in the front yard.

"What the hell?!" A voice called in rage from down below.

"Oh shoe." The youngster laughed as he crouched down.

From under the plum trees, where there was a hammock, poked his head out a very displeased Jongdae, soaked in mud water and ready to murder a man.

"Baekhyun, come down here!"

"Wrong call, Chen, that wasn't me." The brunet called, pulling Sehun up by the back of his collar, then headed down the stairs through the trapdoor leading to the roof (instead of exiting through the same window).

As he scooted into the front yard and past Jongdae, he announced in a deadpan voice:

"I'm going to bring Yixing back!"

"No you're not! The hyungs are about to go, just fit your fat ass on the couch." Jongdae glared, causing Baekhyun to stop on his tracks.

"Chen, it's not about me." The droopy-eyed man spun on his heel and laid his hands on his hips. Only then did he notice Chanyeol sitting in the terrace, staring at him through gouged eyes.

Baekhyun swallowed as he tore his gaze off Chanyeol, bowing his head guiltily. He licked his lips nervously and faced up to Jongdae again.

"Yixing's been talking in his sleep.. I know you heard it too. You know me and you know my story, don't tell me I'm in no position to bring him back."

Chanyeol's eyes were boring holes through Baekhyun's chest. It felt sore as another clot of spit piped down his throat.

 _"I knew it."_ He could hear Chanyeol say in his head as he squinted his eyes and balled his hands into fists.

"Please, Chen, no one will be able to convince him to go on except for me. Give me an hour."

Jongdae scowled. He took a revolver out of the holster on the back of his waist and tossed it to Baekhyun.

"Don't kick the bucket." He said lastly as he allowed Baekhyun to stroll away on his own.

"Thanks." The brunet said with a smile and took off.

"Do you even know where you're going, idiot?" Chanyeol shouted, once again making Baekhyun stop.

"He walked past the venue.. Probably towards that attraction park we passed on our way here." The tall man added in defeat.

Baekhyun nodded, giving Chanyeol a sheepish smile over his shoulder.

~~

Baekhyun wandered along the moss-grown walls until he found the gate. He jumped over the turnstiles and was then facing a long abandoned theme park. The disfunctional attractions loomed over him morosely, covered in rust, dirt and leaves. It must've been a mesmerizing sight in the daylight, when all the green growth hugging the walls and bars was bright and lively, but in the dark, they only intensified the uneasy feeling.

"This place must have been abandoned before I was born." Baekhyun said to himself with a frown, carefully moving further into the park.

Something twitched behind a booth and the brunet found himself clutching the revolver Jongdae gave him.

"Yixing?" He called nervously.

There was no response and he proceeded, dreadfully passing grim booths and frozen-in-time kid's rides.

Once again, he heard something rustle. He whipped his head to where the sound was coming from - a giant marry go round.

The paint had partially peeled off of the reptile-shaped rides (the park was Dinosaur themed, as far as Baekhyun had figured) and the rows of light bulbs above had all burst. The metal trunk of the ride was black towards the roof, most likely because of a fire.

"Yixing?" The brunet called softly when someone moved from behind the trunk.

"Oh shit.." He cussed under his breath as the figure made clunky steps in his direction, growling wickedly.

Baekhyun held the revolver up with a shaking hand, but convinced himself it wasn't worth drawing more attention to himself. He managed to get his legs moving and stormed away from the walker.

Endless minutes of treading around the park brought him to the Ferris wheel. There were corpses scattered on the floor. Penetrating rumbles of the dead traveled in the air, sending chills down Baekhyun's spine.

He jogged up to a booth, stumbling over a rotting body and peeked from the side.

Infected were swarming around the wheel, some hanging over the iron fence, others scratching the enclosed cabins in their reach. Baekhyun's eyes scooted up, searching the cabins for Yixing.

There was one about three meters from the ground, the window had been busted and there were someone's legs crossed over the frame, swaying occasionally.

"That's him for sure.." Baekhyun sighed in relief, although he still had to figure out how to get through to him. He rimmed the area from the distance, looking for alternative ways to approach his friend.

There was a children's drop tower leaning towards the Ferris wheel, damaged and fallen from the big fire that had once happened. If Baekhyun could get there, he would be able to make a leap right into the cabin.

Pooling all of his courage together, he jogged in place, breathing thoroughly. He sprinted on, taking giant steps over the atilt tower and pushed his feet off the top, launching himself into the cabin.

Much to his dismay, he hit the roof first and knocked all the air out of his lungs. He was able to hold onto the stem as he aimlessly flailed his legs in the air.

A startled Yixing poked his head out of the busted window, looking at his friend in disbelief.

"Baekhyun? Is that you?"

"No, it's raining zombies!" The brunet scoffed, hooking his foot on the frame of the window. "Help me get inside!"

"What the hell are you doing here?" Yixing asked sternly once Baekhyun had crawled into the cabin.

"Why is everyone stealing my lines.." The droopy-eyed man sighed. "Let's go back."

"Go back to what?" Yixing snorted a humorless laugh. "There's absolutely nothing I have left to go back to."

"Yeah, I know." Baekhyun exhaled tiredly, sitting down on the bench as he continued to catch his breath.

"Then why'd you come?" The tattooed man's features saddened.

"Because neither have I got anything to go back to." Baekhyun replied, locking his eyes with Yixing's. "I heard you talking in your sleep to Chihyun and I know you feel extremely guilty and that he died because of you, but look at me, Yixing, I _killed_ my own family with my own hands and here I am."

"That wasn't your family, those were soulless monsters in their bodies." Yixing retorted, dumping himself on an opposite bench as he crossed his arms over his knees and hung his head low.

"Shall we recite the story of my life?" Baekhyun smiled into the distance, swaying his feet from left to right. "A happy boy from a happy family, dreamed of becoming a musician. Learned the piano for 7 years, held concerts. I thought I had a bright future in my pocket. But then my parents decided I needed to finish _actual_ university besides conservatory. That's when I lost faith in everything. My own parents who invested tons of money, time and energy into my musical education took my passion for granted, looked down upon my dreams and hopes. A _real_ university besides conservatory?! Because what I do is not enough?! I couldn't get over it. I moved out with a friend, I grew really cold towards my parents and I flopped at uni just to 'teach them a lesson'. I don't know what I was doing.. But I needed money to continue paying for rent because there was no way I was going back home, not like I was very welcome there anymore but.. You get the idea. When I say I grew cold towards my parents, I mean egging their car and crashing furniture cold, so definitely not going back home. That's why I just started to work at a barber shop. First I only cleaned the floors but with time I learned to cut and style hair too. So you know who to call when it all starts to grow crazy. And until the day this goddamn apocalypse happened I had been cutting hair and listening to people complain instead of pursuing music. This hurts so much." He squinted his eyes as if in pain.

"I knew this story.." Yixing dragged a long breath, stretching his legs until his foot touched Baekhyun's. "And how you said you remember feeling a glimpse of joy when killing your parents after they turned into infected. Why did you just tell me this all over again?"

"So I could keep you with me longer." Baekhyun gave him a devilish smile. "I'm just like you, I have nothing to live for whatsoever."

"That doesn't explain your weird disbelief in love."

"What's so weird about it anyway." Baekhyun rolled his eyes. "Love is dead. Because we all die, Yixing, we all hurt. I don't want to love because I know sooner or later.. I'll be able to understand you too well."

There was a pang in the tattooed man's chest. He shot his head up, reading into the brunet's dark hues with a sorrowful expression on his face.

"Yeah, I'm a coward. I'm afraid to love, I'm afraid to die, I'm constantly afraid to lose someone dear and you scared me a lot when you disappeared." Baekhyun kicked Yixing in the foot lightly.

"I lost Chihyun before this all happened and I lost him in a way that is way worse than being eaten by a mindless zombie. He didn't have to pay for my mistakes, but he did, and I'm still failing to learn from those mistakes." Yixing enunciated almost in a whisper, his eyes glistening with tears.

"So instead of learning from your mistakes you decided to hang out with these zombies here?" Baekhyun cocked a brow, glancing out of the window at the swarm of infected trying to reach them.

"I was taking my frustration out and ran out of ammo." Yixing shrugged, raising his rifle up. "Thought might as well die here."

"Oh, really? Is that what you want?" Baekhyun wrinkled his forehead, hopping off his seat. "So you've completely given up now."

"I had given up long ago, Baekhyun, I'm just scared of having to face Chihyun up there. He always told me to stick my neck out of that gang business, to just pursue a doctor's career instead, but I was passionate about art and I liked my job. I don't know why, maybe I thought it was cool to tattoo those bastards that everyone was afraid of but I was a buddy of. They had my back, they were my friends, friends who dragged me into a gang war I had nothing to do with. They destroyed my life, they killed my fiance. I have had nothing to live for since then, but I carried on foolishly. I'm finally tired of this bullshit."

"If you had given up, we'd all be here and you'd still be in that gun shop. The one where they killed Chihyun and the one where we had that stupid talk." Baekhyun's eyes started to sting as he took the revolver out and gripped it tightly.

"That talk where we concluded our lives were really not worth living. We were going to end that then, right there, together, but we didn't. Do you remember why we didn't shoot ourselves then?" Baekhyun laughed weakly, sticking the revolver out to Yixing.

"We said it'd be unfair to Chen. And that was the most utter bullshit we've ever said, Yixing, we both knew Chen was perfectly capable of carrying himself out, but we needed an excuse to live, because we wanted to live so badly, even nonsense like that did the trick. But if you've come to a conclusion now, that it's really time to end this, then here's a loaded revolver, let's go right now, together, as it was originally planned." He kept offering Yixing the gun, constantly staring him in the face.

"No? You won't take it? You know what, Yixing? Things are finally going okay, you have friends who are freaking out over your absence right now, who care for your well-being. You went with them because you wanted to survive, not because Suho convinced you to back at the gun shop."

Yixing shook his head. "I was just afraid of being alone."

"But you weren't afraid here, with all these zombies waiting to take a bite out of you? Because you knew someone would come and save you, because you wanted someone to come and save you." Baekhyun said as he tossed the revolver to the side and knelt to cup Yixing's face.

"Go on with me?" He smiled and stood up again to take the revolver from the floor.

"Isn't that what I've been doing for the past three months?" Yixing sighed, stretching a weak smile in the corner of his mouth.

"You've been holding on much longer on your own before the apocalypse occurred. You're what kept me going too.. I won't believe you suddenly gave up on everything, now that you've actually gained something."

"And now I'm waiting for all that to be taken away from me again."

"I know it's Chihyun's face tattooed on your chest. I know you did it after he passed away so you'd have a constant reminder of him on you. You got that tattoo to remember Chihyun throughout whatever journey life would put you through. There would be no tattoo if there was no intention to live. Now let's go back, everyone's waiting." Baekhyun said lastly, looking out of the window as he pulled a flare gun out of his pocket.

"The flare will distract most of them, we'll take the breadcrumbs out with the revolver and just run for the hell of it, got it?"

"Baekhyun," Yixing called from behind and as the brunet turned his head, he planted a gentle peck on his mouth.

"Good to go now."

~~

The hour Baekhyun asked for was nearly up and Suho couldn't stay still anymore.

"We're going now." He announced, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Wherever they are, they must've gotten in trouble and you let Baekhyun go with nothing but a revolver." Suho told Jongdae sternly, giving him a glare.

"That amusement park was deserted many years ago, there's no way there are any walkers there." Jongdae defended, furrowing his eyebrows together.

"I thought so too when I let Luhan go alone." Minseok's voice rang in the air like church bells, making a brief hush overthrow all the agitated voices.

"It's different, I've been here my whole life, there's really no danger in going alone!" Jongdae protested, balling his hands into fists.

"That wasn't your decision to make to let him go on his own!" Suho snapped, stomping his foot loudly.

"And you, Chanyeol, should have told us you knew where Yixing was as soon as you came back, Minho and I wouldn't have pointlessly looked for him for hours." He then fired at Chanyeol who scowled and bowed his head guiltily.

He didn't mean to keep it a secret, he simply didn't know that someone had been off to look for Yixing at all.

Suho leashed the inky horse to another for their friends to mount.

"You guys are seriously driving me insane." The leader gritted his teeth, mounting the saddle of the same chestnut-colored horse as Baekhyun rode earlier.

Jongdae swiftly swung the strap of his rifle over his shoulder and skillfully climbed onto the back of the horse, tucking himself behind Suho.

"I'm ready to right my wrongs, leadernim." He grinned as Suho pulled the reins and they clattered away.

It wasn't long before they reached the amusement park when they heard gunshots. Suho furiously pulled the reins, rimming the tall walls until they found the entrance.

The two horses jumped over the turnstiles effortlessly like they were on the racing venue again and clattered deeper towards the center.

"Hold up! I see them!" Jongdae shouted to Suho and he stopped the horses immediately.

The younger man took his rifle and aimed it at the walkers following Baekhyun and Yixing.

"Yixing seems to be injured. He's limping." Jongdae informed as he fired away.

Six bullets burst out of the rifle before Chen put it down, that's how Suho knew there had been six infected in total.

"There would be no walkers you said. It's safe to go alone you said." Suho chanted with a smirk on his face.

"I said, I'm here to right my wrongs." Jongdae pouted, jumping off the horse.

Baekhyun had Yixing's arm draped over his shoulder as he hauled him towards the exit. When they shot the flare gun and drew the walkers away from the Ferris wheel, they both jumped down, but Yixing landed poorly and twisted an ankle.

Jongdae took over, helping Baekhyun haul the injured man to the horse.

"Just so you guys know, Suho's about to kick our asses." Jongdae informed casually.

"I swear he's been giving me mom vibes from the start." Baekhyun mumbled, ducking his head low.

~~

Having returned safely with all of their teammates in whole, Suho  headed straight for the bedroom, hoping to find some solitude. He dumped himself on the bed instead of his futon on the floor and shut his eyes, trying to get his deserved siesta.

Out of the blue, Minho entered the room through the bathroom. He shut the door behind himself and pressed his back to it, looking at his napping lover with a gentle smile.

"You've been looking really troubled lately." He said faintly and sat on the bed.

Suho didn't bother to reply or to even move.

"You don't have to bottle it in." Minho whispered, running his hand soothingly over the smaller man's back.

"I have to." Suho muttered, curling into a ball. "I'm the leader, I can't afford to be weak now."

The tanned man laid next to Suho, cupping his tiny posture with his own as his arm hugged his waist and face buried in the crook of his neck.

"So you'll bottle it all until it eats you from the inside?" Minho said and pecked the milky skin behind Suho's ear.

"Sehun's damaged and he won't show it, Minseok's damaged and he won't show it, you're damaged and you won't show it. Out of everyone, I don't have any right to do that."

"But your face always gives it away when something's wrong. I'm here to listen." Minho insisted.

"You want to hear me whine? Fine." Suho tore himself away from the taller man and sat bolt upwards on the bed.

"Chanyeol and Baekhyun throw scenes like little kids and put themselves in danger, completely overlooking what I ask them to do, Yixing goes hell knows where without my consent, Chen bosses around and almost gets Yixing and Baekhyun killed. I am stressed as fuck. I understand that they don't know me like you, Sehun or Minseok do, but since I'm the chosen leader, why can't they respect me and my word?! I wish I could quit this but this ain't a job." He let the steam out, looking down at the palms of his hands.

"Give them some time to adjust. You've proven to be a great leader more than once, they all know it." Minho put his forearm under his head, nestling up on the bed.

"But that's not all, is it?"

"That's all." Suho said flatly.

"Before this all happened.. we've had issues that we never got to talk about and I just---"

"I think it's for the best that we never did. I don't want to talk about us now." Suho cut Minho off, giving him a cold shoulder.

He got off the bed and silently laid on his futon, pulling a blanket over his head.

"Please, leave me alone for a while."

Anger started to bubble up from within. Suho had been precipitating his frustrations since he'd been betrayed by his childhood friend. He never got to cry about it, never got to take it all out. It had been sitting in the pit of his heart as a thick, black sediment instead.

Nobody bothered to care like Suho cared for everyone else, even Minho wanted to talk about their fractured relationship rather than about Kris, something that had scarred Suho eternally.

~~

The night had fallen and a dark, navy canvas of the sky shimmered with hundreds of twinkling stars. The moon was shining so brightly that Baekhyun could see his shadow whilst walking across the dark field towards the barn.

He petted the horses' heads as he walked up to the ladder and climbed onto the hay stacks above.

"Hey." He called quietly, approaching the tall man who was rocking his legs over the empty horse stands below.

"What do you want?" Chanyeol asked in an irritated tone, crossly furrowing his brows.

"To thank you." Baekhyun answered nonchalantly, smirking cunningly. "I wouldn't have found Yixing in time if it wasn't for you."

"Yeah.. or Suho would have found him sooner and Yixing wouldn't have been injured now. I fucked up again." Chanyeol sighed, pulling his legs up as he comforted himself on the hay stack.

"You didn't." The brunet retorted, scooting close to Chanyeol.

A couple of suffocating seconds of silence after, he got the lump in his throat down and swiftly repositioned himself to loom over Chanyeol's lying posture.

"What the hell?" Chanyeol exclaimed as Baekhyun sat on top of him, his hands pinning the taller man's wrists down.

"You like me, don't you?" Baekhyun smiled, leaning in. The sides of their noses touched as he inched closer, feeling Chanyeol's breath tickle the corner of his mouth.

"Why'd you care? You got your Yixing back, quit playing with me." Chanyeol grumbled, burying his head deeper into the hay so that it wouldn't be in Baekhyun's reach.

"I'm not playing, I'm serious." Baekhyun sighed, releasing Chanyeol's wrists to remove his shirt. "Don't start playing hard to get now, I liked you easy better." He said as one of his hands reached to stroke Chanyeol's face and another laid flat on the center of his chest.

Baekhyun shifted, slightly but obviously grinding against Chanyeol's crotch.

The tall man pushed himself up upon registering the touch and laid Baekhyun on his back instead, making his head hover off the edge above the barn.

"I won't jump out of my clothes only because it's you and you've decided to thank me in such a fucked up way." Chanyeol stated strongly, letting go of Baekhyun's shoulders as he comforted himself on the stack again.

The brunet remained on his back, letting his neck loose as it tilted over the edge. He let out a weak laughter.

"See? You're not the only selfish bastard around here."

Chanyeol huffed in annoyance, not giving him a response.

"I can't offer you my love, all I can offer is my body. But even that is for my own satisfaction. But we both want it, right? Why won't you cooperate?"

Fed up and peeved to the core, Chanyeol once again leaned over the brunet and hurriedly kissed him on the mouth, breaking the kiss half a second later.

"Stop talking." He commanded in a husky voice.

The baritone sent Baekhyun's mind over the clouds, giving him goosebumps.

"It's cold on this board.. Come on, hold me, touch me, fuck me, I'm all yours." Baekhyun voiced dreamily, draping his arms around Chanyeol's neck. He pulled him down into another kiss, curving his spine inwards.

Chanyeol had been starving for Baekhyun's touch ever since they first kissed. His hands were itching to snake over his back, fingertips craved to dig into his silky hair, rim his neck before he'd plant hundreds of ardent, open-mouthed kisses over his skin. He wanted to strip him down, take him in his hand and mouth, to hear his sweet voice calling his name in a pleased moan.

He weaved his fingers through the raven locks and clutched a fistful, forcefully pulling Baekhyun's hair down over the edge again.

The brunet gasped out of surprise, following it by muffled, pained rumbles in his throat.

"Stop. You're blurting out some nonsense." Chanyeol whispered.

"You're only making me more horny." Baekhyun uttered through gritted teeth, curling a faint smile in the corner of his mouth.

The tall man gave up, loosening the hold of his hair.

"I'm leaving." He announced, about to get up and go when Baekhyun took over, pushing him into the stack of hay as he settled on top of him again.

"Channie," He murmured in a playful tone as his hand reached down to massage in between Chanyeol's legs. "I want sex." He chanted, tilting his head to the side as he pressed his lips against his.

Chanyeol tore his face away from the brunet's, breathing heavily as blood rushed to his underneath.

"Fuck off." He growled with a weak smirk, starting to shake and sweat from fighting the urges.

"You know you want me." Baekhyun kept on pressuring, victoriously smiling at the growing bump under him. He drifted away to remove his remaining clothes.

He sat in front of Chanyeol in all of his glory and traced a finger around his chest.

"It really shouldn't be taking me so much effort, you're driving me up the wall." Baekhyun said in a deadpan voice. "Do you want me to beg? I can. I've already stepped over my pride for you. Just relax and let me do all the work, alright?" He asked with a sigh.

"Shit.." Chanyeol cussed aloud, exhaling heavily as he clumsily removed his belt, notifying Baekhyun that he had won.

~~

"I feel so used! I'm an idiot! I let him play with me like he wants to!" Chanyeol whined, his fingernails digging into his scalp.

"There's nothing you can do, Baekhyun is extremely good at manipulating people." Jongdae shook his head. For once he felt like laughing at his friend's fox nature rather than getting annoyed, but it was all the merit of a certain someone accompanying him.

"I succumbed to his devilry like a little bitch."

"Yep, you did." Jongdae confirmed with a nod.

"Has he ever tried anything with you?" Chanyeol wondered, curving his brows downwards.

"He hasn't. When we met the first thing he told me is that he doesn't like me." Jongdae snickered. "And I might have scared him away."

"I'd be scared of a shot like you too." Chanyeol smiled, folding his arms on the back of his neck.

"No, no, that's not how I scared him away." Jongdae cracked up. He grasped the thin chain on his neck, pulling a metal cross from under his shirt as he pointed it right at Chanyeol and squinted his eyes.

"Jesus Christ hates you!" He shouted jokingly, causing the taller male to shudder from surprise.

Chanyeol gave him an unsure smile, cocking a brow as he blinked rapidly.

"Relax, I'm not like that. By the end of the day, we're all the same sinners to God." Jongdae paused, wistfully looking into the ceiling. "I've seen so many lose faith as this whole zombie apocalypse thing rolled over, but personally, I find it easier to carry on when you have something to believe in." He smiled sheepishly, tucking the cross back in place.

"It's useless!" A frustrated voice rang in the air, promptly closing in.

Minseok had just left the shooting range cabin and walked up to two of his friends. He shoved the pistol into Jongdae's hands and tiredly plopped down the armchair stood in the corner.

"How many attempts will it take to convince you that guns and I don't go along?" Minseok asked, rubbing his temples. "They're stressing me out."

"You're not bad at all, hyung." The man with high cheekbones cheered on, glancing at the targets Minseok had been trying to shoot.

"Bull~shit." Minseok grumbled, rolling his eyes. "You know what I should be doing instead of wasting my time here? I should be working on my strength, my technique, everything. Yeah, that's what I should be doing." He stood up, determinedly heading out of the shooting range.

"He's being difficult." Jongdae pouted. "How can you not get along with guns, guns are awesome."

"Would you still say that if your boyfriend shot himself in front of your eyes?" Chanyeol shook his head and followed Minseok outside.

"I'm not insensitive!" Jongdae called, furrowing his eyebrows crossly. "Some person in New Zealand might be triggered by the word ice cream, I'm not in New Zealand, does that mean I should still never say ice cream?" He blabbered to himself, rocking his head from left to right.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reaching the end, my friends. I'm not new to writing but I do have a long way ahead of me. I'll never fail to shamelessly give myself credit because English is my third language, but, please, do tell me if there's any error; misuse of a word or an idiom, etc. Thanks for reading, again, and have a wonderful day!
> 
> Updates once a week, maybe? Each chapter has 5k words so cope with me~ Quality over quantity


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